GREENSBORO, N.C. – Missouri S&T sophomore Tim Samuelsen (Stavanger, Norway/St. Svithun VGS) earned the program's fifth national championship performance Wednesday night as he captured the title in the 1,000-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships.

Samuelsen posted the first sub-nine minute time in the event in school history – his time of 8:59.45 broke his own school record by better than eight seconds – and beat out defending national champion Franco Lupoli of Nova Southeastern by over four seconds to win the race.

With over 600 yards of the race completed,  Samuelsen swam a time of 26.97 in a 50-yard segment to move in front of Simon Fraser's Mackenzie Hamill – who had led for much of the race up to that point – and continued to build on that advantage over the final 350 yards as he recorded just the fourth winning performance of under nine minutes in the event in the history of the NCAA Division II Championships.

Samuelsen became the second Miner to win a national title on an individual basis, joining Zlatan Hamzic, who won the 2009 title in the 200-yard breaststroke.  Missouri S&T has also won three national championships in relays, taking the 200-yard freestyle relay titles in 2001 and 2002 and adding a championship in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 2002.

The Miners had two other competitors on the first day of the national meet, as Eirik Nielsen (Stathelle, Norway/Toppidrettsgynmaset) posted a time of 1:49.72 in the 200-yard individual medley and Morgan Meyer (Ruston, LA/Ruston) recorded a mark of 20.57 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle.

The NCAA Division II Championships will run through Saturday.