EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - Senior Ian Crocker (Portland, Maine) set his second world record in as many days en route to winning the 100 butterfly for the fourth year in a row, while classmate Brendan Hansen (Haverford, Pa.) captured his fourth straight title in the 100 breaststroke as The University of Texas men's swimming and diving team finished its second day of competition at the 2004 NCAA Championships in third place with 246 points. Auburn, the defending National Champions, sit in first with 435 points and Stanford rests in second with 248.5 points.
"The only thing I‚m sad about is that I only have one more day as a college swimmer," Crocker said. "Other than that, I couldn‚t have been more proud of the team today and how they performed. I was just hoping I could fire up the guys with a good swim in the 100 butterfly and setting a world record is just an incredibly wonderful bonus."
Crocker actually broke Milorad Cavic's world record of 50.02 in the preliminaries with a time of 49.77 and then came back to lower the mark in the finals with a time of 49.07. Crocker, who joined Pablo Morales of Stanford and Mark Spitz of Indiana as the only swimmers to win the 100 butterfly four years in a row, now owns world records in five events including the 50-meter butterfly, the 100-meter butterfly in short and long course meters, and the 400-meter medley relay in short and long course meters.
Hansen also made history with his fourth straight title in the 100 breaststroke after posting a time of 58.19. Only the second person ever to win the 100 breaststroke four years in a row along with Steve Lundquist of SMU, Hansen will have a chance to join Morales and John Naber of Southern Cal as the only swimmers to win two events four years in a row with a win on Saturday in the 200 breaststroke.
Crocker and Hansen also played instrumental roles in leading the 200-meter medley relay team to a runner-up finish in the event with an American record time of 1:34.58 to start the evening. Sophomore Aaron Peirsol (Irvine, Calif.) and freshman Garrett Weber-Gale (Fox Point, Wis.) joined the squad that was edged by Auburn, which set an NCAA and U.S. Open record with a mark of 1:34.25.
Peirsol, the 2003 NCAA Swimmer of the Year, prepped for his main event on Saturday, the 200-meter backstroke, by posting a third-place finish in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 51.75. Peter Marshall of Stanford set a world record with a time of 50.32 to win the event and his teammate Markus Rogan was runner-up with a mark of 51.60.
While Peirsol was scoring in the backstroke final, junior Andrew Davidson (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) earned the first NCAA All-America Honorable Mention award of his career by winning the ŒB‚ final. After qualifying for the night swim with the 16th and final spot, Davidson came back in the final and went from a 53.53 to a 52.58 en route to winning the consolation final.
Junior All-American Rainer Kendrick (Birmingham, Ala.) also won a consolation final on Friday evening as he posted a time of 52.33 in the 100-meter butterfly before Crocker set the world record. Daniel DiToro (Scottsdale, Ariz.), who won an NCAA title last year as a member of the 200-yard medley relay, added a 14th-place finish with a mark of 53.42.
The final swimming event of the night saw Texas post a sixth-place finish in the 800-meter freestyle relay with a time of 7:12.57. The quartet of junior John Nabors (Sping, Texas), Kendrick, senior Tony Diers (Houston, Texas) and Weber-Gale made up the team that provided the Longhorns with 26 points.
In diving, Texas‚ divers scored their first points of the meet as sophomore Mark Shattuck (Derby, United Kingdom) placed 16th on the three-meter with a score of 505.45. The 2004 Big 12Conference Diver of the Year, Shattuck earned the first NCAA All-America Honorable Mention Award of his career.
The University of Texas men's swimming and diving team will return to action on Saturday, March 27, when it competes on the final day of the NCAA Championships at the Nassau County Aquatic Center. Preliminaries are slated to start at noon and finals will begin at 7 p.m.
