Wednesday, March 18, 2009

UH Swimming, Diving Preps For NCAA Championships

(Sacha Schwendenwein and Anastasia Pozdniakova will lead the Cougars at the NCAA Championships. Photo by Darla Tamulits-La Vita Loca Photography)

HOUSTON, TEXAS (March 18, 2009) The University of Houston swimming and diving team will compete at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Three Cougars are scheduled to compete at the meet and it marks the ninth consecutive year that at least one swimmer or diver has qualified to compete at the championships.

Making her first appearance at the Championships and becoming the first swimmer to qualify since 1989 is Sacha Schwendenwein. She will compete in three events beginning on Thursday with the 500-yard freestyle. She ranks 32nd in the event entering the meet. She will continue on Friday in the 200-yard freestyle, where she ranked 22nd and will conclude the meet on Saturday swimming the 200-yard butterfly, with a ranking of 25th.

Divers Anastasia Pozdniakova and Courtney Forcucci will join Schwendenwein at the championships, competing in all three diving events. The meet will open on Thursday with the 1-meter competition, continue on Friday with the 3-meter competition and close on Sunday with the platform event.

The duo qualified for the meet after competing at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships last weekend in Missouri. Pozdniakova won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events and finished second in the platform event. Forcucci added a ninth place finish in the 3-meter event and was fifth in both the 1-meter and platform events.

For a complete recap of each day's events and results at the NCAA Championships log onto www.UHCougars.com. Fans can also follow live results at http://www.aggieathletics.com/ncaawsimstats.html.

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