March 21, 2018
Championships Central
MINNEAPOLIS - Ben Cono's third-straight appearance at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships starts on Friday when the Loyola University Maryland senior opens his meet program. Cono is slated to swim in both breaststroke events, beginning with the 100-yard version on Friday morning in the preliminaries.
This year's meet will be hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.
Last month, Cono won the Patriot League Championship in both races and was named the 2018 Patriot League Men's Swimmer of the Meet. He earned All-Patriot League First Team recognition for the third time in as many years, as well.
He set a school, Patriot League and Patriot League Championships by swimming a time of 52.21 in the 100-yard breaststroke. That time was good for a win by more than two seconds - Loyola junior John Callaghan came in second in the race for the Greyhounds' first-ever one-two finish at the Patriot League Championships. Cono enters the NCAA Championships with the No. 13 time in the nation in the event.
The 100-yard breaststroke gets underway on Friday, March 23, with the morning preliminaries. The session starts at 10 a.m. and will be broadcast live on BTN2Go (subscription required). The top 16 times from the prelims will qualify for the `A' and `B' finals on Friday night in a session that commences at 6 o'clock and will stream on ESPN3.
Cono moves on to the 200-yard breaststroke, an event he also won at the Patriot League Championships with a time of 1:55.69. That event will be part of the Saturday preliminaries (beginning at 10 a.m. on BTN2Go) with the finals taking place that night (6 p.m., ESPN3).
