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March 25, 2000
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – After setting the short course world records in the100-meter breaststroke yesterday, University of Virginia second-yearAll-American Ed Moses (Burke, Va./Lake Braddock) set the American and U.S.Open records in the 200-meter breaststroke Saturday afternoon at the 2000NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the UniversityAquatic Center in Minneapolis. Moses’ time of 2:08.07 in the 200 breastwas just 28 hundredths of a second shy of Andrei Korneev’s short courseworld record of 2:07.79.
Moses broke Eric Wunderlich’s American record of 2:08.49 set in 1993 andTom Wilkens’ 1998 U.S. Open record of 2:10.76 with his performance. Aftertaking an early lead, Moses trailed Auburn’s David Denniston heading intothe final 50 meters, but Moses swam the last two laps in 34.15, four tenthsof a second faster than Denniston, to earn the prelims victory and enterthe finals as the top seed.
In addition to Moses, UVa fourth-year All-American Doak Finch (SouthernPines, N.C./O’Neal) earned a spot in tonight’s finals. Finch clocked atime of 1:56.37 to finish second in the preliminaries of the 200-meterbutterfly. Stanfords’ Steven Brown won the prelims in a time of 1:55.93.
Also in the 200-meer butterfly, first-year Evan Taylor (Issaquah,Wash./Issaquah) was 24th with a time of 1:59.40, but failed to advance tothe finals. In the 200-meter backstroke, second-year Chris Mousetis(Newport News, Va./Woodside) placed 29th with a time of 2:02.40.Third-year Troy Johnson (St. George, Utah/Dixie) finished in a tie for 45thplace in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 50.07. Neither Mousetisnor Johnson advanced to the finals.
The Cavaliers also have three individuals competing in the 1500-meterfreestyle which is being conducted as a timed final. Fourth-year AustinRamirez (Brookfield, Wisc./Brookfield Central), third-year Jamie Grimes(Olney, Md./Sherwood) and first-year Dan DeMarco (Great Neck, N.Y./GreatNeck South) will all compete in the 1500 free.
Late Friday evening, the Virginia 800-meter freestyle relay team finished15th with a time of 7:21.47 to earn honorable mention All-Americaaccolades. The foursome of Johnson, Mousetis, Finch and Ramirez swam legson the All-American relay team. With the All-American honor, Ramirezbecame the Virginia men’s swimming program’s all-time leader in terms ofnumber of times being named an All-American. It is the 10th time thatRamirez has earned All-America honors in his outstanding career. PeterWright (1992-95) and Shamek Pietucha (1996-99) held the former UVa recordas they were both named All-Americans nine times during their careers.
After two days and 13 events, Virginia stands in 13th place with 79 points.Texas leads the 2000 NCAA Championships with 416 points. Auburn is adistant second with 291 points. The NCAA Championships conclude Saturdayevening.
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