ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T will be sending five individuals to the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships next month in Indianapolis, as the NCAA announced the official field for the meet today.

The five individuals include the four members of S&T's 800-yard freestyle relay team – Aljaz Kerc (Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Bezigrad), Keith Sponsler (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East), Eirik Nielsen (Stathelle, Norway/Toppidrettsgynmaset) and Jon Glaser (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette) -- as well as Miguel Chavez (Chihuahua, Mexico/Colegio de Bachilleres), who is one of the top-ranked competitors in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Sponsler and Glaser are scheduled to compete in two individual freestyle events as well as in the relay, while Kerc is also slated to race in the 200-yard breaststroke along with Chavez.

Competition at the national meet begins on Wednesday, March 11, when Glaser will be in the 1,000-yard freestyle.  He has a top time of 9:16.55 this season, which he posted to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship.  The time is the 12^th-best in NCAA Division II this season.

The following day, Sponsler will see his first competition at the meet in the 200-yard freestyle, where he recorded the fifth-fastest time in the nation of 1:36.57 to win the GLVC title.  The time Sponsler posted at the conference meet broke his own school record set a year ago.

Friday's schedule will find Glaser back in the pool at the start of the day in the 500-yard freestyle, where his time of 4:26.71 is the 10^th-best in the country and earned him second place at the GLVC Championships in the event.  Glaser, who finished second nationally in the 500-freestyle last year, will return to competition later that day with Sponsler, Kerc and Nielsen in the 800-yard freestyle relay, where S&T has its highest ranking in an event of third heading into the national meet.

The S&T quartet posted its best time of 6:33.05 in its winning performance at the GLVC Championships.  A year ago, the Miners' 800-freestyle relay team was the national runner-up to Queens (N.C.), who also has the top time in the event this season of 6:27.23.

During the final day of the meet on March 14, Sponsler will compete in his second individual event in the 100-yard freestyle, while Kerc and Chavez will swim in the 200-yard breaststroke.  Sponsler has the sixth-fastest mark of the season in the 100-freestyle of 44.16 seconds – also a school record -- to win his second individual GLVC title in a meet where he earned the league's "Swimmer of the Year" award.

Chavez, meanwhile, is ranked fourth in the 200-breaststroke with a top time of 1:57.80 that won the GLVC title, while Kerc – who was second to Chavez at the conference meet – had a time of 1:59.83 that is the 12^th-best in the nation.

Kerc and Sponsler are making their third straight trips to the national meet, while Glaser competed in it a year ago as a freshman.