CSU's NIC Fan Central Page | NIC Meet Home Page | Schools Competing (NIC)
NIC Live Results - Meet Mobile | NCAA Zone Diving Live Results

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland State University men's and women's swimming & diving teams will continue postseason action this week by competing in a pair of events.

Cleveland State is hosting the National Invitational Championship at its Robert F. Busbey Natatorium. The meet will take place Thursday, March 14, through Saturday, March 16. Prelim sessions will begin at 9:30 a.m. each day with finals sessions starting at 6:00 p.m. each day. Live results will be available through the Meet Mobile app ($).

For the meet schedule, more meet details or to purchase tickets in advance, fans are encouraged to visit CSU's NIC Fan Central page.

The NIC was created because a growing number of student-athletes have been denied an opportunity to participate in a national-level championship. All Division I conference champions, both relay and individual, automatically qualified for the NIC while student-athletes were also able to qualify by meeting predetermined time standards.

Along with holding all traditional individual swimming events and relays, the NIC will also contest 50-yard events for backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, the 100 individual medley and the 1000 freestyle. As a result, the NIC will crown champions in more events than any other collegiate championship.

This is the fourth time the NIC has been held, and it will be the largest meet to date. Fifty nine schools have entered the event.

Cleveland State will have six male swimmers in the NIC that are expected to contest a combined 16 individual events. The Viking men entered in the event are sophomore Timothy Kubacki, freshman Bob Lenart, junior Jack MacDonald, sophomore Dominik Niedzialek, freshman Mason Romstadt and sophomore Ryan Sedlak. The Viking men are also expected to contest every relay except the 800 freestyle relay.

Niedzialek had a trio of top-three individual finishes at the Horizon League Championships in the 100 back, 200 back and 500 free. Kubacki was among the top three in both the 200 back and the 400 IM at the HL meet.

Sophomore Alana Cartwright is the lone female Viking competing in the NIC. She is entered in four individual events—the 50 butterfly, 50 breaststroke, 100 breaststroke and 100 IM. Cartwright had a trio of top-eight individual finishes at the Horizon League Championships last month.

While the NIC is going on at home, Cleveland State will also have a pair of divers on the road looking to further their seasons. Senior Curtis Roden and sophomore Matt Akers will compete at the NCAA Zone C Championships this week.

The NCAA Zone C meet opens Thursday, March 14, on the 1-meter board and continues Friday, March 15, on the 3-meter board. The event is taking place at Purdue's Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center. Diving will begin at 1:00 p.m. both days and live results will be available by clicking here.

There are five zone meets spread across the country that allow divers to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Based on performances at the previous NCAA Championship meets, each zone earns a set number of qualifying spots. The men's divers at the Zone C meet are chasing after one of 11 spots in the 1-meter event and eight spots in the 3-meter event.

The events will consist of a preliminary round of six dives with the top 18 finishers advancing to the final round. Divers will perform six more dives in the final round, with scores on all dives in the prelims and finals used to determine placing.

There are 40 entries in the men's 1-meter and 39 in the 3-meter event. Twenty seven of the 1-meter entrants hail from Power Five conferences, with 20 divers representing a Big Ten school.

Akers competed at the Zone Championships last season as a freshman while this will be the first such appearance for Roden.

Akers has surpassed the Zones standard six times this season in the 1-meter event and twice in the 3-meter discipline. He scored a career-high 330.10 points in the HL Championships finals to place second in the event. Akers scored a season-high 331.87 points in 3-meter at Ashland.

Roden surpassed the Zones standard in the 1-meter event in his first meet of the season by scoring 305.10 points in a dual against Xavier. He surpassed the 3-meter standard in a dual at Ashland in December, scoring 321.75 points. He finished among the top eight in both events at the HL Championships.

The dives that Akers and Roden are scheduled to complete can be viewed at these links: 1-meter and 3-meter.