St. Cloud State swim and dive athletes qualify for upcoming NCAA championships

The St. Cloud State University women's swimming and diving team will be sending a contingent of nine athletes and the SCSU men's team will be sending one swimmer to the upcoming 2020 NCAA Division II championships, which will be held on March 11-14 at the SPIRE Institute Aquatic Center in Geneva, Ohio.

On the women's team, the Huskies will continue their legacy of powerhouse dive squads with four SCSU divers qualifying for this year's championships. This year's qualifers include senior Rebekah Stone, juniors Madison Brinkman and Alyssa Doherty and freshman Meredith Matchinsky. SCSU's individual swimmers to qualify include junior Kasey Milstroh and senior Chelsea Gehrke along with relay team qualifiers junior Alexis Burroughs, freshman Alaina Friske and junior Marena Kouba. On the men's team, freshman Abe Townley has qualified in the 50 freestyle event.

At the recent NSIC championships, Brinkman was named the Diver of the Meet after winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. She broke the NSIC record in the 1-meter with a score of 446.90. In that event, SCSU's Stone placed second followed by Doherty in third and Matchinsky in fifth. In the 3-meter diving, Brinkman placed first followed by Matchinsky, Stone and Doherty. Brinkman qualified in 2019 for the NCAAs and placed 20th in the 1M and 21st in the 3M. Stone, who was named the 2019-20 NSIC Diver of the Year, received All-America honors in the 1M event at last year's NCAA championships and Doherty also qualified for the NCAA meet in 2019.

Gehrke will also be making a return trip to the NCAA meet after qualifying in 2019, 2018 and 2017. Last year, Gerhke earned All-America honors in the 100 and 50 freestyle events at 2019 NCAA DII championships and also gained All-America notice in the 400 and 200 free relays for the Huskies. She has qualified this season in the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free and will also swim in SCSU's 200 free relay and 200 medley relay. At the recent NSIC meet, Gehrke won the 50 free with a time of 23:39 and the 100 free at 50.98. She placed second at the NSIC meet in the 200 free at 1:52.12.

Milstroh is making her first trip to the NCAA championships for the Huskies. She has qualified in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 butterfly. At the recent NSIC meet, Milstroh placed third in the 50 free at 23.48 and second in the 100 fly at 55.43. She will also swim for the Huskies' 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.

SCSU's 200 free relay, which took first place at the NSIC meet this season with a school time of 1:33.83 will also include Burroughs and Friske. The SCSU 200 medley team will also include Kouba and Burroughs and it won the NSIC championship this season with a record time of 1:42.45. Of note, SCSU's 200 free relay team placed 13th at the 2019 NCAA championships and gained All-America status with a time of 1:34.46. That relay team consisted of Gehrke, Burroughs, Jen Thompson and Christina Ware.

Townley was one of SCSU's top swimmers at the recent GLIAC championships. He placed fourth in the 50 free at the GLIAC meet with a time of 20.23 and also placed 3rd in the 400 freestyle event and eighth in the 100 butterfly.

At the 2019 NCAA Division II, SCSU's women's team finished in 20th place as a team and the SCSU men's team placed 26th overall.

For complete information on the upcoming NCAA DII championships in Geneva, Ohio, please visit this link: https://www.clevelandsports.org/events/2020/03/11/ncaa-dii-mens-and-womens-swimming-diving-championships