This Thursday through Saturday, the Ole men will compete at the 2006 NCAA Division III National Championships to be held at the University of Minnesota’s Aquatic Center. The Oles will have 13 individual event swims, compete in both diving events and swim three relays.

Co-coach Dave Hauck has high hopes for his men’s squad, currently ranked fifth in the country in national polls.

“I think we should finish somewhere between fifth and tenth place overall,” said Hauck, who also noted that rival Gustavus is expected to finish near the Oles. “Hopefully having the meet nearby will give these guys a solid support system.”

The St. Olaf men hope to cap what was another highly successful season this weekend at the Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. The Oles finished second behind the Gusties at the MIAC Championships last month, and won a then-MIAC record 20 consectutive conference titles between 1980 and 1999.

Highlighting the men’s performances this weekend will be newcomer Nelson Westby ‘09, one of the brightest young first years in the conference. Westby enjoyed an outstanding collegiate debut and will compete in the three individual events (200-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke) as well as the 400-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay.

Fellow first-year Jacob Koch will also swim in five events: the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and all three Ole relays (400 medley, 200 medley and 800 freestyle).

Two-time MIAC Diver of the Year Christian Lorenzten ‘07 will take on the field in the one- and three-meter diving events.

Joe Anderson ‘07, Ben Wareham ‘07, Mark Glineburg ‘06, J.C. Chambers ‘06, Tom Kukla ‘07 and Paul Evenson ‘07 will also compete this weekend.

Preliminaries will begin each day begin at 11 a.m. and finals begin at 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

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