Seven Virginia Men's Swimmers Earn All-America Honors During First Day Of NCAA Championship
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March 24, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The University of Virginia men’s swimming and diving team had seven swimmers earn honorable mention All-America accolades Thursday (March 24) during the first of three days of competition at the 2005 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. The national championship is being held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. After six events, the Cavaliers stand in 18th place with 18 points.
Virginia scored points in three of six events Thursday and stands in 18th place with 18 points. Auburn leads the NCAA Championships with 172 points, while Arizona is second with 130 points. California is third with 126 points and Stanford is fifth with 120. Florida rounds out the top five with 86 points.
The Cavaliers finished 15th in the 200 freestyle relay, the first event of the NCAA Championship, to earn honorable mention All-America honors. The foursome of fourth-year Luke Anderson (Charlottesville, Va./Bolles School), second-year Vanja Rogulj (Zagreb, Croatia/Split), first-year Bryan Stahl (Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands), and second-year Stefan Hirniak (Highland Park, N.J./Princeton Day) clocked a time of 1:21.03 in finishing 15th. The same foursome was 16th in the preliminaries with a time of 1:21.25.
Virginia had a pair of swimmers capture honorable mention All-America accolades in the 500 freestyle. Third-year Fran Crippen (Conshohocken, Pa./Germantown Academy) was 11th, while second-year John Millen (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview) took 16th place. Crippen clocked a time of 4:19.32 in the consolation final and Millen touched in 4:22.23. Millen was 15th in the prelims (4:19.63), while Crippen was 16th (4:19.75). Hirniak was 38th in the prelims of the 500 free with a time of 4:26.78.
In the 200 individual medley, first-year Pat Mellors (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) garnered the first All-America certificate of his career with a 10th-place time of 1:46.34. The honorable mention All-American was ninth after the prelims with a time of 1:46.07. Fourth-year Bo Greenwood (Manakin, Va./Goochland) placed 31st in the preliminaries of the 200 I.M. with a time of 1:48.90.
The Cavaliers were disqualified from the consolation finals of the 400 medley relay. In the prelims, the foursome of Stahl, Rogulj, fourth-year Michael Raab (Rockville, Md./Walter Johnson), and Anderson, posted a 10th-place time of 3:12.79.
In the prelims of the 50 freestyle, Anderson finished 18th with a time of 19.74. He was just three hundredths of a second off the 16th place prelims time and advancing to this evenings’ consolation final.
The second of three preliminary sessions for the 2005 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships begins Friday at 1:00 p.m. Friday’s finals events begin at 8:00 p.m.