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March 27, 2004

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – University of Virginia fourth-years Ian Prichard (Ventura, Calif./Buena) and Luke Wagner (Englewood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) and third-year Michael Raab (Rockville, Md./Walter Johnson) each captured first-team All-America honors Saturday (March 27) at the 2004 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships which were held at the Nassau County Aquatics Center. In addition, three other Cavaliers earned honorable mention All-America accolades for their performances Saturday night and helped UVa finish 13th as a team.

The Cavaliers finished 13th at the NCAA Championships with 108.5 points, marking UVa’s fifth consecutive top 13 finish. Virginia was just four points shy of tying Georgia for 10th place. Auburn successfully defended its NCAA title by winning the team title with 634 points. Stanford (377.5 points) edged Texas (374) for second place, while Arizona and Michigan rounded out the top five with 322 and 271 points, respectively.

Prichard registered Virginia’s top finish in the meet with his fourth-place performance in the 1500-meter freestyle which earned him first-team All-America honors for the third consecutive year. Prichard touched in 15:03.27 and his fourth-place performance marked his best finish at the NCAA Championships. Raab placed fifth in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:55.71 for his second straight first-team All-America honor in that event. Raab was the top qualifier in the prelims as he set the NCAA record with his time of 1:55.47. Three swimmers bettered Raab’s mark in the championship final Saturday evening. Wagner rounds out UVa’s first-team All-Americans with his seventh-place performance in the 200-meter backstroke. He touched in a time of 1:55.73 for his second first-team All-America honor in the 200 back. Wagner posted a time of 1:55.07 in the preliminaries.

UVa also had three swimmers earn honorable mention All-America honors Saturday evening. Second-year Fran Crippen (Conshohocken, Pa./Germantown Academy) and first-year John Millen (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview) finished among the top 16 in the 1500-meter freestyle to garner honorable mention certificates. Crippen was ninth in the 1500 free with a time of 15:08.54, while Millen touched in a time of 15:14.13 to place 14th.

First-year Vanja Rogulj (Zagreb, Croatia/Split) rounds out UVa’s honorable mention All-Americans. Rogulj was 10th in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:10.79. He was ninth in the prelims with a time of 2:10.11, which was just one one-hundredth of a second behind the eighth-place finisher.

Several other Cavaliers competed in the morning prelims, but did not advance to the evening session. Third-year Bo Greenwood (Manakin, Va./Goochland) placed 23rd in the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 1:58.37. First-year Stefan Hirniak (Highland Park, N.J./Princeton Day) competed in the 200-meter butterfly and was also 23rd with a time of 1:59.25. Hirniak also teamed up with fourth-year Adam Kerpelman (Lutherville, Md./St. Paul’s School), Wagner, and Raab in the 400-meter freestyle relay. The foursome touched in at 3:22.88 to finish 17th and just miss advancing to the consolation finals.

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