GRINNELL ATHLETES SET FOR NCAA DIVISION III NATIONAL SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS WEEK

Grinnell College Swimmers

GRINNELL, Iowa – Three Grinnell College athletes hope to make a splash this week when they compete in the NCAA Division III National Swimming and Diving Championships at Knoxville, Tenn.

Imelda Wistey ’14, Michael Brus ’14 and Kelly Bruce ’12 will compete for the Pioneers, who have a diver at nationals for the first time since 2004 and a swimmer for the first time since 2001.

Wistey and Brus will compete in three events each. Wistey earned automatic spots in nationals in both the women’s 100-yard and 200 breaststrokes. She is ranked first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:02.55 and ninth in the 200 in 2:20.01. She will also compete in the 100 butterfly, where she is ranked 38th with a time of 58.47.

Brus earned an automatic spot in the men’s 200 backstroke, where he’s ranked fourth in 1:49.46. He also qualified in the 100 backstroke, where he is 10th in 50.28, and will compete in the 200 individual medley where he is ranked 51st in 2:00.73.

Bruce will compete in one- and three-meter women’s diving. She enters the meet with school-record scores of 483.85 and 498.75, respectively.

Bruce was named the Midwest Conference Diver of the Year for the third time in a row last month, while Wistey and Brus were tabbed the MWC Women’s and Men’s Swimmers of the Year.

“Our expectations and goals are pretty simple,” said Grinnell coach Erin Hurley. “We just want to go swim as fast as we can and dive as well as we can. With three competitors it is not about a team score for us. All three have the potential to score. Imelda is seeded high in both breaststrokes and Michael in both backstrokes. It is hard to tell with diving as they don’t seed or rank them. But for Kelly, just by being selected, she knows that she is considered one of the best 22 divers in the country.”