Championship Results
COLLEGE STATION, Texas --The University of Arizona men's swimming and
diving team jumped one spot to be in seventh place (143) after the second day
of competition at the 2001 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.
Leading the pack is defending champion Texas with 446.5 points. Rounding out
the top-five teams are Stanford (337.5), Tennessee (247.5), Southern
California (234) and Auburn (231). The championships are being held at the
Texas A&M University Student Recreation Center in College Station, Texas.
The Wildcats had their highest finish of the meet thus far when junior
Omar Ojeda placed second on the three meter in tonight's finals. Ojeda's
point total was 635.95 and broke the Arizona school record set by Jimmy
Sjodin in 1997. Junior Ruben Vaca placed 11th on the three meter board today
with 513.55 points.
"Both of the Arizona divers had a great day today. Omar's performance was
brilliant, he shattered the old school record by 65 points. He's capable of
being first or second in the country, he's that good, as he showed us all
today," said Arizona head diving coach Michele Mitchell-Rocha.
In the championships finals of the 100 butterfly junior Roland Schoeman
touched the wall at 46.53 to place third. Senior Jay Schryver swam his career
top-time in the championship final of the 200 free at 1:35.39. Schryver
placed fifth in the event.
Freshman Eric la Fleur, junior Roland Schoeman, senior Ben Anderson and
freshman Tyler Johnson placed second, 10th overall, in the consolation
finals of the 200 medley relay. The relay team hit the wall at 1:28.16.
The Cats finished in ninth place in the 800 freestyle relay (6:30.33).
Arizona's relay team consisted of Anderson, Schryver, and seniors Scott
Gaskins and Tyler Painter.
Head coach Frank Busch said, "We've definitely put ourselves in the
position to get done what we wanted to when we got here. It was a great night
for us and we'll just keep working at it one session at a time. If we keep
doing it one session at a time we'll be just fine."
In the championship finals of the 200 medley relay the Longhorns of Texas
broke the NCAA record, the American record, the U.S. Open record and the pool
record when they finished the race at 1:24.47. Texas also broke all four
records (NCAA, American, U.S. Open and pool) in the 800 freestyle relay when
they swam to the time of 6:18.00.
Tim Siciliano, a junior at Michigan, broke the pool record in the 400 IM
when he won the title for the third straight year. Siciliano won the event in
the time of 3:40.77. Texas freshman Ian Crocker won the 100 butterfly at
45.96 breaking the pool record. Fellow Longhorn Brendan Hansen, a freshman,
broke the pool record in the 100 breast (52.35). Another pool record was
broken when USC freshman Klete Keller won the 200 free at 1:34.43. Tennessee
senior Michael Gilliam set a new pool record in the 100 back at 45.97.
The final day of the 2001 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships
will be held tomorrow, March 24. Preliminaries begin at 12 p.m. C.S.T. and
finals begin at 7 p.m. C.S.T.
