Virginia's Michael Raab Breaks NCAA Record in the 200 Fly During The Final Day Of The Men's NCAA Championships

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March 27, 2004

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – University of Virginia third-year Michael Raab (Rockville, Md./Walter Johnson) posted the top time in the preliminaries of the 200-meter butterfly Saturday (March 27) at the 2004 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Nassau County Aquatics Center. Raab’s time of 1:55.47 broke the former NCAA record of 1:55.79 set by Stanford’s Adam Messner. Raab will swim in the 200-meter fly championship final that will be held tonight. Virginia fourth-year Luke Wagner (Englewood, Colo./Regis Jesuit) also advanced to the final session of the meet for his performance in the 200-meter backstroke, as did first-year Vanja Rogulj (Zagreb, Croatia/Split) in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Virginia has three swimmers competing in tonight’s timed finals for the 1500-meter freestyle. Fourth-year Ian Prichard (Ventura, Calif./Buena), second-year Fran Crippen (Conshohocken, Pa./Germantown Academy), and first-year John Millen (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview) hold the second, third, and fourth seeds in that event, respectively.

Michael Raab posted a time of 1:55.47 in the preliminaries of the 200-meter butterfly to give him the NCAA record and the top seed going into tonight’s final. At the 2003 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, Raab finished third in the event to earn first-team All-America honors.

In the first event of the morning preliminaries, Luke Wagner had an eighth-place finish in the 200-meter backstroke. Wagner touched in at 1:55.07 to qualify to swim in the 200-meter back championship final. Wagner was joined by UVa third-year Bo Greenwood (Manakin, Va./Goochland) in the 200-meter backstroke this morning. Greenwood clocked a time of 1:58.37 and finished 23rd in the event.

Vanja Rogulj came in ninth in the prelims for the 200-meter breaststroke, which earned him a spot in the consolation final this evening. Rogulj’s time of 2:10.11 was one hundredth of a second behind the eighth-place finisher.

Virginia first-year Stefan Hirniak (Highland Park, N.J./Princeton Day) also competed in the 200-meter butterfly. Hirniak clocked a time of 1:59.25 to finish 23rd. Hirniak 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.

The last final session for the 2004 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships begins tonight at 7:00 p.m.