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March 23, 2000
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Virginia men’s swimming team finished third in thepreliminaries of the 400-meter medley relay Thursday afternoon, March 23,to qualify for tonight’s finals in the opening session of the 2000 NCAADivision I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the UniversityAquatic Center in Minneapolis.
The Cavaliers posted the third-fastest time in the afternoon preliminariesat 3:33.15 to qualify for the finals. UVa second-year Chris Mousetis(Newport News, Va./Woodside) swam the lead backstroke leg, followed bysecond-year All-American Ed Moses (Burke, Va./Burke) in the breaststroke.Fourth-year All-American Doak Finch (Southern Pines, N.C./O’Neal) swam thebutterfly leg and third-year Troy Johnson (St. George, Utah/Dixie) swam theanchor freestyle leg. Virginia’s time was just 56 hundredths of a secondoff Texas’ winning time of 3:33.15, which set a U.S. Open record.Tennessee was second with a time of 3:33.47. Virginia was seeded seventhin the 400 medley relay entering the meet.
Fourth-year Austin Ramirez (Brookfield, Wisc./Brookfield) qualified for thefinals of the 400-meter freestyle with the eighth fastest time of thepreliminaries. Ramirez posted a time of 3:46.63 in the prelims Thursdayafternoon. Also in the 400 freestyle, third-year Jamie Grimes (Olney,Md./Sherwood) touched in 3:50.96 to finish 27th in the prelims, but did notadvance to the finals.
Three UVa swimmers competed in the prelims of the 200-meter individualmedley, but failed to advance to the finals. Mousetis tied for 34th with atime of 2:02.29, while Finch was 36th in 2:02.33. First-year Evan Taylor(Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah) was 44th in time of 2:03.50. In the 50-meterfreestyle, 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.
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