Complete Lists of NCAA Qualifiers
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Lyam Dias, Guillermo Blanco and Marat Amaltdinov will represent Purdue men's swimming and diving in individual events at the NCAA Championships later this month at the three-day meet in Iowa City.
Dias qualified as an individual for the third year in a row and Blanco made it for the second time. Amaltdinov will represent the Boilers as a freshman. Dias is the first Purdue swimmer to be a three-time individual qualifier for NCAAs since Romain Maire made it in four straight years from 2005-08.
Amaltdinov joins Stephen Seliskar and Austin Flager as active Boilers to go to the national championship meet as freshmen, but he's the first individual qualifier as a freshman since Chris Etherington in 2006.
Divers earn their NCAA berths based on their performances at the Zone Championships. Purdue is competing at the Zone C meet again, set for March 12-14 in Columbus, Ohio.
If the Boilers have at least one diver qualify (as expected), they will have an opportunity to also compete in the 200 medley relay at NCAAs. If that scenario plays out, Seliskar, Flager and Adam Johnston would earn relay berths to the national championship meet and team with Dias in the 200 medley relay. Purdue's program-record time of 1:26.57 in the 200 medley relay was only two hundredths of a second behind the final team on the initial list of invited relays.
Flager and Johnston were also relay qualifiers for NCAAs last season, while Seliskar swam the backstroke leg on the 200 medley relay in 2013. The national championship meet invitations for the women's swimmers were announced last week. Five individuals qualified for the Purdue women and two more earned relay berths.
Dias is the Boilers' top qualifier after winning the 200 breaststroke at the Big Ten Championships to become the program's first conference champion in a swimming event since 2009. His time of 1:53.92 is ranked 11th nationally. He was an Honorable Mention All-American last season in the 200 breast, the first Purdue swimmer to take home such an honor in an individual event since Giordan Pogioli in 2006.
To qualify for an individual event, a swimmer's time had to rank among the top 29 to 31 nationally, depending on the event.
Blanco qualified 20th in the 200 individual medley (1:43.87) and 24th (3:44.47) in the 400 IM. Amaltdinov's Purdue freshman-record time of 1:54.33 in the 200 breast is ranked 18th nationally.
Individual qualifiers that own NCAA provisional qualifying times ("B Cuts") in other events also have an opportunity to compete in those races. Blanco is ranked 39th in the 200 butterfly and Amaltdinov 44th in the 100 breaststroke. The 200 fly was among the three A finals Blanco qualified for at Big Tens this season.
The men's national championship meet is set for March 26-28 at Iowa's Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium, which also hosted the Big Ten Championships this season. Amaltdinov, Blanco and Dias all posted their season-best times at Big Tens last month, helping the Boilers take fourth to match their best-ever finish as a team.
2015 Purdue Men's Swimming NCAA Qualifiers
Event, Time (National Rank)
* -- New Purdue Record Time
^ -- New Purdue Freshman Record Time
Lyam Dias (NCAAs Qualifier: 2013-15)
200 Breaststroke, 1:53.92 (11th)
100 Breaststroke, 52.72 (21st)
Guillermo Blanco (NCAAs Qualifier: 2014-15)
200 IM, 1:43.87* (20th)
400 IM, 3:44.47 (24th)
200 Butterfly, 1:45.32 (39th)
Marat Amaltdinov (NCAAs Qualifier as a Freshman)
200 Breast, 1:54.33^ (18th)
100 Breast, 53.96 (44th)
Relay Qualifiers for 200 Medley Relay (if at Least One Diver Qualifies)
Would be Second Career NCAAs Berths for All Three
Austin Flager
Adam Johnston
Stephen Seliskar