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Feb. 24, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Virginia fourth-year Doak Finch (Southern Pines,N.C./O’Neal) set a school record in winning the preliminaries of the 200individual medley with a time of 1:47.90 in the opening session of the 2000Men’s ACC Swimming and Diving Championship Thursday at Maurice J. KouryNatatorium on the campus of the University of North Carolina. Finch, thetwo-time defending ACC champion in the 200 IM, is one of eight UVa swimmersto advance to tonight’s finals of the 47th annual ACC Championship.
Finch clocked a time of 1:47.90 in the 200 IM to break his own schoolrecord by seven-hundredths of a second. He is one of three Cavaliers toadvance to the finals of the 200 IM. First-year Chris Mousetis (NewportNews, Va./Woodside) swam a personal-best time of 1:48.36 to finish secondto Finch in the prelims. Second-year Ed Moses (Burke, Va./Burke), thefavorite in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, finished fifth in the 200 IM in atime of 1:49.10, also a personal-best. All three times meet the NCAA “B”qualifying standard.
Virginia was even more dominant in the 500 freestyle as it placed fourswimmers in the top seven. Fourth-year Austin Ramirez (Brookfield,Wisc./Brookfield), who is attempting to become a four-time champion in the500 free, bettered second-place finisher and third-year teammate JamieGrimes (Olney, Md./Sherwood) by more than three seconds in the prelims.Ramirez recorded a season-best time of 4:20.48 in winning the 500 free, andin the process, automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships. Hemissed his career-best by 23 hundredths of a second. Grimes finishedsecond with an NCAA “B” time of 4:23.73, nearly four seconds better thanhis previous best of 4:27.55. Third-year Michael Fuller (Richmond,Va./Mills Godwin) and first-year Mike Wheeler (Lisbon, Md./McDonogh) placedfifth and seventh, respectively, in the prelims of the 500 free. Fullerwas seventh in a time of 4:26.53, while Wheeler shaved nearly seven secondsoff his career best time in finishing in 4:27.33. Fuller and Wheeler alsomet the NCAA “B” standard.
Third-year Troy Johnson (St. George, Utah/Dixie) garnered runnerup honorsin the prelims of the 50 free as he touched in a season-low and NCAA “B”qualifying time of 20.31 seconds. Johnson’s best effort of the seasonprior to the prelims was 21.11 against Villanova on January 29. N.C.State’s Greg Solt won the prelims with a time of 20.31 seconds.Second-year Matt Lee (Munster, Ind./Munster) tied with Drew Childs ofMaryland for eighth in the prelims, but lost in a swim-off 20.33 to 20.76.Lee will swim in the consolation finals of the 50 free.
Finals for the 50 and 500 free, 200 IM, one-meter diving, as well as the200 free relay will be conducted tonight beginning at 7:00 p.m. Resultscan be obtained on UNC’s website at www.tarheelblue.com
Other UVa competitors in the first preliminary session on Thursday include:
| Evan Taylor | 9th | 200 IM | 1:50.62 |
| Guy Yimsomruay | 10th | 200 IM | 1:50.72 |
| Jared Felker | T11th | 50 Free | 20.68 |
| Daniel Zurowski | 12th | 500 Free | 4:29.97 |
| Dan DeMarco | 17th | 500 Free | 4:31.84 |
| Jimmy Blitzer | 26th | 50 Free | 21.11 |
| Justin Capuco | 27th | 200 IM | 1:54.48 |
| Jonathon Baird | 29th | 200 IM | 1:54.75 |