March 23, 2016
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SPRINGFIELD - Artur Osvath makes his opening appearance on the national stage as Missouri State's first freshman to compete at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday, March 24, at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech.
Osvath continues a stretch of four straight years the program has had a swimmer participate at the NCAA Championships, the longest span in school history. Osvath is the ninth Missouri State student-athlete to compete at nationals and third swimmer in the previous four years - which includes Paul Le and Uvis Kalnins - to qualify for the meet.
"What has impressed me most about Artur is his ability to make the adjustment from coming from another country to the United States, handling the academic load that comes with that, as well as being a high level student-athlete," Bears head coach Dave Collins said. "You're 19-years-old, you're doing something for the very first time, a lot of different changes in culture, just everything involved.
"To watch him excel as a freshman, and make all those adjustments and swim fast enough to be at the fastest meet in the United States, is incredible. It's been very fun to watch and be a part of."
Osvath is scheduled to participate in three events over the four-day meet, which starts Wednesday with relay races. The Budapest, Hungary, native begins action Thursday in the 200-yard IM prelims. He swims Friday in the 100 breaststroke and follows that by racing in the 200 breast prelims Saturday, the event he qualified for the NCAA meet in with the 27th fastest time in the nation with a mark of 1:55.04.
"Before I got here I had surgery, so I was a little bit out of shape when I (arrived in Springfield)," Osvath said. "I tried really hard from the beginning. From the very first day here, I knew that my goal was to make NCAAs, so I was just very excited (when I qualified).
"I trusted the coaching staff and the team from my first day (on campus). I think that's why I could succeed, because I worked on what they said every day. I tried to work as hard as I could."
The first freshman in program history to qualify for the NCAA Championships, Osvath has stamped his name into the Missouri State record book. Already the school-record holder in the 200 breast (1:55.04), Osvath also ranks second in MSU history in the 100 butterfly (47.57), third in the 200 IM (1:46.63) and fifth in the 100 breast (54.43).
"Anytime you get an invite to this meet, you have a chance," Collins said. "If you can drop some time at this meet, you can shoot way up the rankings.
"(Artur) being a freshman, there's not many freshman that make this meet. He made it in an event that a lot of seniors graduated from last year that scored. We're going to go, and we're going to try to take it all in and get some good experience, that will hopefully be beneficial for him as he moves through his college career."
All preliminary events begin at 9 a.m. CST from Thursday-Saturday, with a free live stream available to watch each day at atlantaswimming.com/Webcast. ESPN3 will live stream the finals sessions on Friday and Saturday starting at approximately 5 p.m. Links to live results, heat sheets and live streams are available on Georgia Tech's Championship Central page, as well as on the swimming and diving schedule page at missouristatebears.com.
Check out all the latest news and information on the Bears' swimming and diving team at MissouriStateBears.com and follow @MoStateSwim on Twitter and Instagram for updates throughout the championship meet.
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