Zlatan Hamzic, who earned Missouri S&T’s first individual national champion in any sport during the 2008-09 season, will have the opportunity to compete at the international level next week as he will take part in the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia.
Hamzic will compete for his home nation of Serbia in the swimming competition that will get underway Sunday. He will compete in the 50-meter breaststroke that begins Thursday, July 9 with the semifinal round; the finals in the event are slated to take place the following day.
Hamzic won the NCAA Division II championship in the 200-yard breaststroke at the 2009 national meet in Houston, setting the school record with a time of 1:58.03 in the event on the way to the national title. He also holds S&T’s school record in the 100-yard breaststroke of 54.76 seconds, a mark he posted as he placed fourth nationally in that event.
During the 2009 national meet, Hamzic earned four All-America awards – he was also part of the Miners’ medley relay teams that finished among the top eight at the national meet – to go along with the four All-America awards he landed as a freshman in 2008. He was the national runner-up in the 200-yard breaststroke in his first season at S&T.
Hamzic also won three titles during the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championships, winning both the 100- and 200-breaststroke along with the 400-medley relay.
This marks the third consecutive year that a current or former Missouri S&T student-athlete has earned a spot at a major international competition. Former Miner track and field All-America performer Tyrone Smith competed at the Pan American Games in 2007 and in the Olympic Games last summer in Beijing, China.