Arizona Finishes Third at NCAA Championships

Minneapolis, Minn. ?- The No. 5 Arizona men’s swim team completed the final day of competition at the 2007 NCAA Championships tonight, finishing third with 371 points, only 26 points away from second place Stanford. Eight Wildcats accumulated 33 All-American honors over the course of the three day meet, while breaking two NCAA and seven school records.

The Cats tallied five NCAA titles, including four individual and one relay. The three athletes who posted the individual victories marks the most Arizona has ever had in the history of the program since 1999 when Ryk Neethling posted three.

“To loose the four national champions off of last year’s team and for this team to be 26 points out of second place is unbelievable,” head coach Frank Busch said. “It was a great team effort and I couldn’t be more proud of the guys.”

Starting off tonight’s action was freshman Jean Basson, who finished fifth in the 1650 free with a personal best time of 14:52.17. In the 200 back, freshman Jake Tapp finished seventh overall with a time of 1:43.40.

In the Championship finals of the 100 free, sophomore Nicolas Nilo finished fourth with a time of 42.37, as senior Adam Ritter finished fifth (42.43) and junior Darian Townsend finished 13th (43.03).

For the final event of the meet, the 400 free relay team of junior Albert Subirats, Nilo, Townsend and Ritter finished second with a school record-breaking time of 2:47.86. Subirats also broke the school record in the 100 free with his leadoff time of 42.05.

Records Broken (total)

Adam Ritter 200 IM 1:41.72 school

Subirats, Nilo, Ritter, Townsend 200 FR 1:16.26 school

Albert Subirats 100 back 44.83 school, UM pool

Albert Subirats 100 fly 44.57 NCAA, school, UM pool

Albert Subirats 100 free 42.05 school

Nilo/ Basson/ Townsend/ Ritter 800 free relay 6:14.14 NCAA, school, UM pool

Subirats/Nilo/Townsend/Ritter 400 free relay 2:47.86 school

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