Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Wolverines Breeze to Dual Win Over Eastern Michigan
10/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team concluded a perfect season-opening weekend by defeating Eastern Michigan 174-115 on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 27) at Canham Natatorium. The Wolverines won every single event on the day and captured the top three spots in the 50-, 200- and 1,000-yard freestyles.
The Wolverines got off to a quick start with a victory in the 400-yard medley relay (3:26.93), which featured freshman Chuck Sayao (Mississauga, Ontario/Cawthra Park HS), junior Jeff Hopwood (Palo Alto, Calif/Palo Alto HS), sophomore Christian Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich./Adams HS) and senior Jordan Watland (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka HS).
All four of the members on the 400-yard medley relay team went on to win individual events. Hopwood, an All-American in 1999-2000, posted first-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke (57.32) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:04.98), making him one of three Wolverine swimmers to win multiple individual events. Sayao won the 200 backstroke for the second time in as many days (1:51.03) while Vanderkaay and Watland won the 100-yard butterfly (50.98) and the 100-yard backstroke (51.97), respectively.
Along with Hopwood, sophomore Dan Ketchum (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore HS) and junior Garrett Mangieri (Closter, N.J./Mercersburg Academy, Pa.) marked the other members of the Maize and Blue to win two individual swimming events. Ketchum was victorious in the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.08) and 500-yard freestyle (4:30.85), while Mangieri was the top performer in the 50-yard freestyle (20.94) and the 100-yard freestyle (45.86).
In diving, sophomore Jason Coben (Newtown Square, Pa./Maple Newtown HS) earned an NCAA zone qualifying mark on the one-meter board (296.25) en route to a first-place finish. Coben also secured the top spot in the three-meter event with his score of 295.72.
Other members of the Wolverines to post first-place performances were freshman Andrew Hurd (Oakville, Ontario/Universal HS) in the 1,000-yard freestyle and senior captain Eric Wilson (Portland, Ore./Sunset HS) in the 200-yard butterfly (1:52.74).
Michigan will open the Big Ten schedule on Friday (Nov. 2) at 6 p.m. with a home dual meet against Indiana.
Q U O T E S
U-M Assistant Coach Eric Namesnik
On the Wolverines' performance ... "Our team had a good performance but we still have some areas we need to work on. Usually you tend to not be as sharp the day after a meet so we will have to work on that because we will have to swim against Georgia next week the day after we face Indiana. Those will be two tough meets back-to-back."
Senior Captain Eric Wilson
On the opening weekend ... "It is very good for our confidence to open the season 2-0. We have a balanced attack and there are no events where we are weak. It's also great to see the freshmen step in and contribute right away."
Freshman Chuck Sayao
On his first collegiate dual meets ... "I had a good time this weekend and it felt good to finally get started. I like the feeling of being a part of a good team and today we were just riding off the momentum of beating Florida yesterday."
Contact: David Crabtree (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
