March 25, 2011

By Wes Todd
Assistant Media Relations Director

MINNEAPOLIS – South Carolina sophomore Michael Flach wrapped up his second day of competition at the NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships with a 37th-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle prelims Friday afternoon at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.

Flach swam his second event of the meet in a time of 1:36.74, a faster swim than the same race at last year’s championships in Columbus, Ohio. His fastest time of the year in the event – which ranks second in school history – was a 1:35.39 that earned a fifth-place finish at the SEC Championships last month. Today, it took a 1:35.07 to make the consolation final and a 1:34.48 to make the championship final. Scott Robison of Virginia was the top qualifier from the preliminaries with a pool-record time of 1:33.27.

Flach will swim South Carolina’s final event of the 2010-11 collegiate season on Saturday as he competes in the 200 butterfly. Prelims are set to begin at 1 p.m. ET with live video available through GopherSports.com and live results via NCAA.com.