Mustangs Jump Out To Great Start At European Championships
Dec 7 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Dec. 7, 2006
HELSINKI, Finland (SMU) - Two Mustangs from SMU's men swimming and diving team began competition at the European Short Course Championships in Helsinki, Finland today and kicked things off with a bang.
This morning, Luka Vrtovec (Slovenia), swam in the first heat of the meet and posted a personal best time in the 50 free of 21.98 which qualified him for semi-finals in the eighth position. The time was his best short course meter time by .8 seconds and converts to a time (19.69) that will put him third in the collegeswimming.com top times rankings. In finals, Vrtovec was slightly off his morning pace, but still posted the second best time of his career at 22.11. That time made him the 11th fastest man in Europe.
Shortly after Vrtovec finished, fellow Mustang Alex Hetland (Norway) took to the blocks for the 100 breaststroke. Hetland had similar success and qualified for the semi-finals with a time of 1:00.22. The time put Hetland in the 13th position heading into finals. In the finals he bettered both his time and his place. He swam to a time of 1:00.15 which was good for a 12th place finish. Hetland was also part of Norway's 4 x 50 medley relay in which he swam the butterfly leg in a time of 23.41 seconds.
SMU alumni, Lars Froelander swam a time of 53.37 for 18th place in the 100 fly.
Tomorrow Vrtovec will expand his race to four lengths competing in the 100 free. Hetland has tomorrow off and will get focused on the 100 IM and the 50 breaststroke which begin on Saturday.
