The 2004-2005 swimming and diving season comes to an end as the men's squad competes Thursday through Saturday in the 2005 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis.

The No. 8 men's team carries a 6-4 record, 2-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference. The Wildcats took fourth place with 450 points in the 2005 Pac-10 Championships in Long Beach, Calif., March 2-5.

The tournament begins each day at noon with preliminary action. The finals will be held at 7 each night.

Arizona fields 11 swimmers and one diver, who will combine to compete in 27 events. The team brings six returning All-Americans.

The 11 swimmers competing are freshmen Ivan Barnes, Jonas Persson, Gerhard Zandberg, Nick Thoman and Albert Subirats. Sophomore Adam Ritter, juniors Simon Burnett, John Collier, Tyler Deberry, Lyndon Ferns, Dave Rollins and senior Nate Stevens will also participate.

Junior diver John Collier is coming off a little prosperity from the Zone E Diving Championships March 10-12, where he came in second place on both the 1-meter and 3m springboard events.

The Wildcats face their toughest competition of the season, highlighted by No.1 California and No. 3 Stanford.

Another team to keep an eye on is No. 2 Auburn, which is looking for its third NCAA title in a row.

The Arizona men came in fourth place with 322 points at last year's NCAA Championships in Long Island, N.Y.

- compiled from press releases