Virginia's Anderson Earns First Team All-America Honors With Sixth-Place Finish In 50 Freestyle At NCAA Championhips

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March 28, 2002

ATHENS, Ga. – University of Virginia second-year Luke Anderson (Charlottesville, Va./Bolles School) finished sixth in the finals of the 50-yard freestyle Thursday (March 28) at the 2002 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Georgia’s Gabrielsen Natatorium to garner first-team All-America honors. Second-year Ian Prichard (Ventura, Calif./Buena) placed ninth in the 500 freestyle to capture honorable mention All-America accolades, while the Cavaliers earned the same distinction in the 400 medley and 200 freestyle relays with ninth and 11th-place finishes, respectively.

After the first day of competition, and six of 21 events, UVa stands in 10th place with 52 points. Texas leads the 2002 NCAA Championships with 163 points and Stanford is second with 143, followed by Arizona (104).

Anderson became the first UVa men’s swimmer in over 20 years to earn All-America honors in the 50 freestyle as he finished sixth with a time of 19.76 seconds. With his sixth-place performance Anderson captured first-team All-America honors, the first Cavalier to earn the distinction in the 50 freestyle since 1980 when Phil Perdue was also a first-team All-American. Anderson finished fifth in the prelims with a time of 19.70.

Anderson also helped lead the Cavaliers to honorable mention All-America accolades in the 400 medley and 200 freestyle relays. Virginia won the 400 medley relay consolation final to finish ninth overall at the NCAAs with a time of 3:12.49, the second fastest time in school history. Second-years Luke Wagner (Greenwood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) and Gary Marshall (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville) and first-year Michael Raab (Rockville, Md./Walter Johnson) swam the first three legs of UVa’s medley relay with Anderson swimming the freestyle anchor leg. In the session-opening 200 freestyle relay, Virginia touched in a time of 1:19.88 to finish 11th overall with Anderson swimming the leadoff leg. Second-years Jonathan Haag (Ashland, Ohio/Ashland), Adam Kerpelman (Lutherville, Md./St. Paul’s School) and Wagner joined Anderson on the All-American relay. UVa was 14th after the prelims with a nearly identical time of 1:19.83, which was just off the school record of 1:19.78 set at the 2002 ACC Championships.

Prichard also earned honorable mention All-America honors as he won the consolation final of the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:17.34, which is one second shy of his school record time. Prichard’s time was also the fourth fastest of the evening session and bettered his preliminary time (4:20.71) by more than three seconds.

Several other Virginia swimmers competed in the prelims during the first of three days of competition. In the 500 free, third-year Dan DeMarco (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck South) was 34th in 4:28.07. Kerpelman also competed in the 50 free with Anderson and touched in 20.45 to finish 43rd. In the 200 individual medley, Marshall finished 17th with a time of 1:47.12, while first-year Bo Greenwood (Manakin, Va./Goochland) clocked a time of 1:47.61 to place 22nd.

The 2002 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships continue Friday with preliminaries beginning at 11:00 a.m. Finals begin Friday evening at 7:00 p.m.