Arlington resident Nathaniel Hughes is headed to Shenandoah, Texas with Worchester Polytechnic Institute’s swimming and diving 800-yard freestyle relay team to compete in the NCAA Division III Championships on Friday, March 20. It is the first relay team in school history to earn an invitation to the national meet.

The men’s 800-yard freestyle relay quartet of Hughes, David Smallwood, Alex Powers and Andrew Bauer posted its qualifying time of 6:45.47 just this past Thursday en route to winning the event for the second straight year at the New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference championships. The time was also a school and pool record for the Engineers.