NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Seven Notre Dame men’s swimmers have been selected to the NCAA Championships, the governing body announced Wednesday. Josh Bottelberghe, Jack Hoagland, Sadler McKeen, Jack Montesi, Aaron Schultz, Zach Smith and Zach Yeadon will represent the Irish at the final meet of the season in Indianapolis.
Bottelberghe, Schultz and Yeadon return as veterans of the championship meet, all participating in the meet for each year of their Notre Dame tenure.
Bottelberghe will compete in the 100 and 200 Breast. The sophomore swam in the 200 Breast at the 2019 NCAAs, qualifying for the 2020 installment with a 1:53.63 in the event.
Schultz will participate in the fourth and final NCAA Championships of his career, being a relay swimmer as a freshman and sophomore and qualifying in the 200 Fly in 2019. The senior and captain qualified for the 200 Fly with a 1:42.29, and will also compete in the 200 IM and 100 Fly.
Yeadon, a two-time conference champion at the 2020 ACC Championships (500 and 1650 Free), returns to the NCAA Championships for the third straight year. As a sophomore, Yeadon finished 13th in the 1650 Free and 14th in the 500 Free, earning All-American Honorable Mention honors.
At the 2018 edition of the event, the current junior earned All-American honors with a second place finish in the 500 Free consolation final and 10th overall. He followed up that performance with a fourth place individual finish in the 1650 Free on the final day of competition, tying the program-best place for an individual finisher. Having earned honorable mention honors for his 500 Free swim, his fourth place finish in the 1650 boasted first-team honors.
Newcomers to the event include freshman Hoagland, sophomore Smith, junior McKeen and senior captain Montesi.
Hoagland took Irish record books by storm this season, reaching the podium in all three of his events at the 2020 ACC Championships (500 Free, 1650 Free and 400 IM) and setting a 400 IM program record and three second-fastest program times, in addition to three new pool records for Rolfs Aquatic Center.
He joins fellow freshman Coleen Gillilan as the only Irish swimmers to qualify outright for three events at NCAAs, Hoagland’s being the 500 Free, 1650 Free and 400 IM.
Smith takes on his first NCAA Championships thanks to a qualifying time of 1:42.90 in the 200 Fly last weekend at Purdue, which ranks him as the second-fastest performer in the event for Notre Dame records. He will also compete in the 100 Back and 100 Fly.
McKeen came off a successful ACC Championships to qualify for the 200 Free with a 1:33.59 a time achieved this past weekend at Purdue, and ranking him as the second-fastest 200 Free performer in Irish history. The junior will also swim the 500 Free and the 200 Back.
Rounding out the Irish contingent is Montesi, who will take part in his first career NCAA Championships. Montesi set two new school records over the weekend in the 100 Back (45.81) and 200 Back (1:40.14), and both times qualified him for the meet. He will also swim the 100 Fly.
Beyond individual events, the Irish men will swim the 800 Free Relay, for which the team of McKeen, Schultz, Cason Wilburn and Yeadon qualified outright with their school-record performance at the ACC Championships (6:16.86). Notre Dame will also swim the 400 Medley Relay.
At this point in the season, only the swimmers have been selected to the championships.
“Next are the zone diving championships, and there, we hope to add a few more athletes to our contingent,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Litzinger noted. Irish divers will compete in the Zone C Championships in Lexington, Ky., from March 12-14.