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March 24, 2001
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – University of Virginia first-years Luke Wagner (Greenwood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) and Gary Marshall (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville) earned first-team All-America honors Saturday night (March 24) at the 2001 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Texas A&M’s Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Wagner finished fifth in the championship final of the 200-yard backstroke, while Marshall was seventh in the 200-yard breaststroke in earning All-America honors. As a team, Virginia finished 13th in the NCAA Championships with 82 points, which is UVa’s second-best finish at the NCAAs.
Virginia finished in 13th place with 82 points, which is the second-best finish in school history. At the 2000 NCAAs, UVa finished a school-best 12th. Texas won the 2001 NCAA Championship with 597.5 points. Stanford finished second with 457.5 points and Tennessee was third with 330.5 points. USC and Florida rounded out the top five teams with 299 and 265 points, respectively. Southern Methodist edged UVa for 12th place with 88 points.
Wagner touched in fifth place in the championship final of the 200-yard backstroke with a school record time of 1:42.67. Wagner broke his own school record time of 1:43.17 which he set in tying for sixth place in the preliminaries Saturday afternoon. Jason Webb held the previous school record with a time of 1:43.98 in 1997. Marshall finished seventh with a time of 1:56.88 in the championship final of the 200-yard breaststroke. He qualified third for the final with a personal best time of 1:55.78.
Virginia had three swimmers earn honorable mention All-America honors in the 1650-yard freestyle. First-year Ian Prichard (Ventura, Calif./Buena) led the way with a ninth-place finish in 14:57.70. Second-year Dan DeMarco (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck South) was right behind Prichard in 10th place with a career-best time of 14:59.62. Fourth-year Jamie Grimes (Olney, Md./Sherwood) posted a time of 15:28.35 to take 15th place and round out UVa’s All-Americans in the event. Virginia fourth-year Michael Fuller (Richmond, Va./Mills Godwin) finished in 26th place with a time of 15:28.35. Fuller was also 31st in the 200-yard butterfly with a preliminary time of 1:47.71.
The Cavaliers also placed 14th in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 2:56.68 in the consolation final and earned honorable mention All-America accolades. First-years Luke Anderson (Charlottesville, Va./Bolles School), Jonathan Haag (Ashland, Ohio/Ashland), and Adam Kerpelman (Lutherville, Md./St. Paul’s School) and fourth-year Troy Johnson (St. George, Utah/Dixie) each swam legs on the relay. UVa clocked a time of 2:55.75 in the prelims to advance to the consolation final. The same four swimmers also competed in the prelims of the 100-yard freestyle on Saturday. Anderson tied for 17th place with a time of 43.92, just a miniscule one one-hundredth of a second shy of the last qualifying time for the consolation final. Kerpelman was 42nd in the 100 free (44.65), Johnson tied for 47th (44.81) and Haag placed 56th (45.18).
Compete results can be obtained at www.ncaa.org.