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March 23, 2000
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Virginia men’s swimming team finished fourth inthe finals of the 400-meter medley relay Thursday night, March 23, at the2000 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at theUniversity Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. Fourth-year Austin Ramirez(Brookfield, Wisc./Brookfield) was eighth in the 400-meter freestyle tojoin the 400 medley relay in earning first-team All-America honors.
After the first six events, Virginia has scored 41 points and stands in a13th-place tie with Hawaii. Texas leads the 2000 NCAA Championship with173 points. Auburn is second with 151 points.
The Cavaliers posted a time of 3:33.47 in the finals of the 400 medleyrelay after recording the third-fastest time in the preliminaries(3:33.71). UVa second-year Chris Mousetis (Newport News, Va./Woodside)swam the lead backstroke leg, followed by second-year All-American Ed Moses(Burke, Va./Lake Braddock) in the breaststroke. Fourth-year All-AmericanDoak Finch (Southern Pines, N.C./O’Neal) swam the butterfly leg andthird-year Troy Johnson (St. George, Utah/Dixie) swam the anchor freestyleleg. Texas won the event with a U.S. Open record time of 3:31.23.
Ramirez finished eighth in the finals of the 400-meter freestyle with atime of 3:47.76 to earn first-team All-America honors. He was eighth inthe prelims in 3:46.63. It marks the ninth time that Ramirez has garneredAll-America honors in his career which equals the UVa school recordcurrently held by Peter Wright (1992-95) and Shamek Pietucha (1996-99).Ramirez captured his fourth first-team All-America honor with thisevening’s performance.
In the preliminaries in the afternoon, UVa had five swimmers who competedbut failed to make this evening’s finals. Third-year Jamie Grimes (Olney,Md./Sherwood) touched in 3:50.96 to finish 27th in the prelims of the 400freestyle. In the 200-meter individual medley, Mousetis tied for 34th witha time of 2:02.29 and Finch was 36th in 2:02.33, while first-year EvanTaylor (Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah) was 44th in a time of 2:03.50. In the50-meter freestyle, Johnson clocked a time of 22.85 to place 49th.
The Cavaliers have a total of eight athletes competing at the Men’s NCAAChampionships, which run through Saturday, March 25. Virginia entered the2000 NCAAs ranked a program-best seventh in the latest College SwimmingCoaches Association of America Top 25 Poll. UVa finished 14th at the 1999NCAA Championships, its highest finish ever.
Moses, the top seed in the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke, will swim in thepreliminaries of the 100 breast Friday afternoon. The 200 breaststroketakes place Saturday.
The NCAA Championships are being swum in meters for the first time.Complete meet results can be obtained on the NCAA’s home page atwww.ncaa.org