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Shamek Pietucha Wins National Title in 200-Yard Butterfly
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March 27, 1999
INDIANAPOLIS – Senior Shamek Pietucha (Edmonton, Alberta) becamethe first men’s swimmer in University of Virginia history to win a nationaltitle here Saturday, taking the hardwood in the 200-yard butterfly at the1999 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships.
The Cavaliers finished 14th as a team with 65 points Saturday for atotal of 114 points on the weekend. Auburn University took the teamnational title with 467.5 total points. Stanford and the University ofTexas finished second and third, respectively.
Pietucha, who was third last season in the 200 butterfly, won thefinal heat by eight-hundredths of a second. His time of one minute, 43.50seconds shattered his own school record of 1:44.28 and was just ahead ofthe 1:43.58 time posted by Michigan’s Tom Mathchow.
UVa junior Doak Finch (Southern Pines, N.C.) finished seventh forthe second straight year with a time of 1:45.10. It was the thirdconsecutive year that Pietucha and Finch earned first-team All-Americahonors in the 200 butterfly.
Freshman Ed Moses (Burke, Va.) also had another great day,finishing second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a school-record time of1:57.06. That time was more than a full second faster than Chris Graber’sprevious school mark set in 1993. Moses made a charge in the final heatafter placing seventh in the afternoon preliminaries. Auburn’s DaveDenniston left the field in his wake, though, finishing in a time of1:55.51.
Junior Jamie Grimes (Olney, Md.) placed ninth in the 1650-yardfreestyle with a time of 15:04.72 – the fastest time in the consolationfinals. Junior Austin Ramirez (Brookfield, Wis.) joined Grimes on thehonorable mention All-America team in the 1650 with a time of 15:05.75 toplace 11th.
Last season, the Cavaliers finished 17th at the national meet,amassing 89 points. Virginia finished the weekend with four individualfirst-team All-Americans, one first-team All-America relay team and fourindividual honorable mention All-Americans.