Trio of Eagles Ready for NCAA Championships

ATLANTA (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University men's swimming and diving team will close out its season at the NCAA Division I Championships this week, March 23-26, at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta. Competing for the Green and White will be senior swimmer Andrew Henry (Garner, N.C.-West Johnston), junior diver Alex Chan (Toronto, Ontario-Neil McNeil Secondary School), and freshman diver Tom Gillis (Halifax, Nova Scotia-Citadel).

The trio of Eagles marks the most EMU student-athletes competing at the NCAA Championships since 1989 when the Green and White qualified a relay team. Additionally, with three Eagles set to take part in the end of season meet, Eastern Michigan has more student-athletes competing than No. 21 Harvard and just as many as both No. 19 Princeton and No. 25 LSU.

Making his first appearance on the national stage, Henry will look to close out his Eastern Michigan career with a strong finish at the NCAA Championships. Two weeks after fueling the Eagles to a Mid-American Conference Championship, the senior freestyle specialist enters the race as the 20th-seeded swimmer in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:34.20. Henry's qualifying time came at the MAC Championships when the Garner, N.C. product led off EMU's record-breaking 800 Free Relay. A captain for the Eagles, Henry has won the 200 Free five times this sesaon, including the MAC Championship earlier this month. Since the beginning of the season, Henry has dropped more than six seconds of his, time leaving him less than two seconds off top-seeded Blake Pieroni of Indiana. Recording NCAA consideration times in both the 200 Individual Medley and the 100 Free, Henry will take part in three events over the course of the week.

Chan is set to make his second consecutive appearance at the end of season meet. The Toronto, Ontario native became the first Eagle diver in program history to qualify for nationals last season, ultimately claiming 28th-place on the 3-meter dive. Following a sweep of the diving events at the MAC Championships, Chan totaled 665.90 points at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, March 11, in West Lafayette, Ind, earning an automatic bid to this week's championship meet. Chan set school, meet, and pool records on the 3-meter at the MAC Championships with a career-best score of 422.75 to take home gold.

Joining Chan on the springboard will be reigning MAC Freshman Diver of the Year, Gillis. Notching 668.65 points on the 1-meter, Gillis placed eighth at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships to earn a trip to Atlanta. With his automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, Gillis becomes the second diver in program history to make an appearance and the first freshman in EMU history to do so. Gillis' best score of the season on the 1-meter came at the MAC Championships when the Halifax, Nova Scotia product registered a career-best score of 315.90 to take home fourth-place.

Competition for the Eagles gets underway Thursday with a 10 a.m. start time set for prelims. Henry will compete in the 200 IM while Gillis and Chan will compete on the 1-meter with hopes of qualifying for the championship heats. The trio will return to the pool Friday, March 25, for the 3-meter prelims as well as the 200 Free before Henry closes out the week on Saturday in the 100 Free. A full schedule of events as well as live results and video stream can be found here. Additionally, the finals sessions on Friday and Saturday can be viewed on ESPN3.

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Players Mentioned

Alex Chan

Tom Gillis

Andrew Henry

Eastern Michigan Athletics