March 16, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -
The Auburn swimming and diving team inched closer to its fifth straight NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving title Friday night, stretching its lead to 102 points entering the final day of competition. The Tigers used a combination of depth, diving and relay speed to widen their margin, which stood at 66 points after day one.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Auburn has 380 points, followed by Arizona with 278 points, Stanford (261), Texas (225) and Florida (199). It marks a drastic change from last season, when the Tigers trailed Arizona by five points entering the final day. Auburn's 380 points are the most after two days for the Tigers since 2004, when Auburn had 435 points after two days.
"Today I'm caught up in this wave that the team created this morning by performing so well," said Marsh. "The morning session was the best session we've had in my career. We had 15 swims and 15 lifetime best swims. To come in with this field and go all best times was truly amazing."
The evening session started in a very beneficial fashion for Auburn, as the Tigers not only won the 200 medley relay with a new NCAA record, but saw three of their top competitors disqualified, costing those schools valuable team points. Auburn's team of Scott Goodrich, David Maras, Alexei Puninski and Cesar Cielo posted a time of 1:23.37, easily breaking the old NCAA mark of 1:23.88 set by Arizona last year. It marked the fifth time that Auburn has won the 200 medley relay since 1997.
Auburn's record time was almost overshawdowed by a slew of disqualifications. Arizona, Texas and Northwestern were all disqualified, giving their teams no points in the team race. Those squads entered the night ranked second, third and tied for fourth in the team standings.
"We did the best job we could do," said Puninski of the Tigers' victory. "Everybody's pretty tired right now. We've had a lot of events before this race, but we're excited and we believed in ourselves. We've been thinking about this record since the beginning of the year, and we finally did it."
Auburn's lone individual victory of the day came from Steven Segerlin, who was his second career NCAA title and first on the 3-meter board. Segerlin, who had qualified first during the prelims with a score of 401.50, improved to a mark of 415.80 in the finals to edge Ohio State's Kellen Harkness by 8.65 points. His mark was just off his school-record total of 427.80 that he set while winning the SEC title.
Dan Mazzaferro finished 11th overall on the 3-meter board. After posting a score of 343.40 in the prelims, which ranked 13th, he improved to a score of 352.40 in the finals to move up two spots. Kelly Marx finished 30th with a score of 288.50.
"It feels awesome to win an NCAA title on a springboard event," said Segerlin. "At Auburn platform has always been our big focus, but Jeff (Shaffer) is an amazing coach in both springboard and platform. Coming to college I never dreamed I'd win a title on springboard."
"Steve has really gotten better in this event," said diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "The tale of the tape in this one was his consistency, and that's been one of his fortes all through his collegiate career. That was a tough contest. He hung in there and stayed with the game plan of taking it one at a time and earned the right to dive last during the prelims, and I think that was a big factor. And we had a really solid performance from Dan as well, ending up 11th at his first NCAA championships."
The Tigers added to their lead with three finalists in the 100 fly. Matt Targett, who finished 22nd in this event last year, broke the school record that Alexei Puninski had set during the prelims and finished third with a time of 45.87, besting Puninski's prelim mark of 46.19. Puninski improved to 46.06 to finish fifth, while Jakob Andkjaer placed eighth with a time of 46.76.
In the 100 back, James Wike matched his prelim time of 46.87, but moved up three spots from an eighth-place qualifying time to fifth place in the finals. Bryan Lundquist, who was sixth in the prelims, finished eighth in 46.97. Scott Gooodrich finished second in the consolation final to place 10th overall, posting a time of 47.33, while Cesar Cielo placed 16th with a time of 48.23.
In the 100 breast, Jon Roberts finished in sixth place with a time of 53.01, improving his prelim time when he ranked eighth in 53.13 seconds. David Maras won the consolation final to place ninth overall with a time of 52.94, improving his personal best and prelim time by two-tenths of a second. Sean Osborne placed 15th with a time of 53.88 in the consolation final.
Auburn also had a sixth-place finish in the 800 free relay, as the team of Andkjaer, Lundquist, Tyler McGill and Joey Schneider finished with a time of 6:24.80. Earlier in the evening, Schneider had placed 15th during the consolation finals of the 200 free with a time of 1:36.10.
The final day of competition begins with prelims at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday. Live results can be found on the Minnesota athletics website at www.gophersports.com.
2007 NCAA Championships
Day Two Auburn Finishes And Event Winners
200 medley relay
1. Auburn (Goodrich, Maras, Puninski, Cielo), 1:23.37
400 IM
1. Alex Vanderkaay (MICH), 3:40.89
100 fly
1. Albert Subirats (ARIZ), 44.57
3. Matt Targett, 45.87
5. Alexei Puninski, 46.06
8. Jakob Andkjaer, 46.76
200 free
1. Darian Townsend (ARIZ), 1:33.29
15. Joey Schneider, 1:36.10
100 breast
1. Mike Alexandrov (NW), 51.56
6. Jon Roberts, 53.01
9. David Maras, 52.94
15. Sean Osborne, 53.88
100 back
1. Albert Subirats (ARIZ), 44.83
5. James Wike, 46.87
7. Bryan Lundquist, 46.97
10. Scott Goodrich, 47.33
16. Cesar Cielo, 48.23
3-meter diving
1. Steven Segerlin, 401.50/415.80
11. Dan Mazzaferro, 343.40/352.40
30. Kelly Marx, 288.50
800 free relay
1. Arizona (Nilo, Basson, Townsend, Ritter), 6:14.14
6. Auburn (Andkjaer, Lundquist, McGill, Schneider), 6:24.80
Team Standings
1. Auburn 380
2. Arizona 278
3. Stanford 261
4. Texas 225
5. Florida 199