Michigan
NCAA Championships (Day 3)
Thompson Wins Mile; Wolverines Finish 10th at NCAAs
3/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Finally! After numerous close calls, including four runner-up finishes and four third-place efforts, senior Chris Thompson (Roseburg, Ore./Roseburg HS) of the University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team finally earned the coveted title of "NCAA champion."
Thompson waited until the last day of his final NCAA Championships before getting his national title, blowing away the field in the 1,650-yard freestyle on Saturday (March 24) at Texas A&M's Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Thompson set NCAA, American, U.S. Open and pool records with his time of 14:26.62 and won by 15 seconds over junior teammate Tim Siciliano (San Marcos, Calif./San Marcos HS), who clocked in at 14:41.84.
The Wolverines scored in two events Saturday and finished with 161 points, good for 10th place in the final team standings. Texas easily won the title with 597.5 points, 140 ahead of runner-up Stanford (457.5).
Thompson, NCAA runner-up in the mile his first three seasons and the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist in the 1,500-meter freestyle, broke former Wolverine Tom Dolan's (1994-96) NCAA, American and U.S. Open record (14.29.31 in 1995) in the 1,650 by almost three seconds. Thompson's 1,000-yard split time of 8:44.11 also set an American mark.
Siciliano added a runner-up finish in the 1,650 to his third straight 400-yard individual medley title from Friday, while freshman Dan Ketchum (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore HS) received All-America Honorable Mention status with his 13th-place finish (15:04.01) in the 1,650 and Justin Drake (Phoenix, Ariz./Arcadia HS) finished 27th (15:31.63).
The Wolverines' other points Saturday came in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, as the team of Jordan Watland (Excelsior, Minn./Minnetonka HS), Garrett Mangieri (Closter, N.J./Mercersburg Academy, Pa.), Siciliano and Ketchum earned All-America Honorable Mention with their 16th-place finish (2:59.36).
Diver Jason Coben (Newtown Square, Pa./Maple Newtown HS) closed out a strong freshman campaign with a 28th-place finish on the 10-meter platform (321.50).
Siciliano accounted for an impressive 51 of the Wolverines' 161 points to finish in a third-place tie in the High Point standings. Siciliano won the 400 IM (20 points), finished second in the 1,650 freestyle (17) and took fifth in the 500 freestyle (14). Nate Dusing of Texas was the High Point Award winner with 57 points.
The three days of competition saw the Wolverines collect 11 All-America honors and nine All-America Honorable Mention awards. Complete results, along with post-event awards, are available at the NCAA Championships website, and ESPN will show tape-delayed coverage of the NCAA meet on Thursday, April 5, at 2 p.m. EST.
Final Team Standings (Top 10)
1. Texas 597.5 2. Stanford 457.5 3. Tennessee 330.5 4. Southern Cal 299 5. Florida 265 6. Arizona 251 7. Auburn 236 8. California 191 9. Minnesota 176 10. MICHIGAN 161
Top Eight/U-M Finishes
(Preliminary times for U-M in parentheses if faster than finals time)
1,650-yard Freestyle
1. Chris Thompson, U-M 14:26.62!*#$ 2. Tim Siciliano, U-M 14:41.84 3. Erik Vendt, Southern Cal 14:45.69 4. Justin Mortimer, Minnesota 14:47.82 5. John Cole, Harvard 14:49.58 6. Matthew Martin, Purdue 14:50.56 7. Tyler Painter, Arizona 14:52.78 8. Klete Keller, Southern Cal 14:56.86 13. Dan Ketchum, U-M 15:04.01 27. Justin Drake, U-M 15:31.63200-yard Backstroke
1. Nate Dusing, Texas 1:41.52$ 2. Markus Rogan, Stanford 1:41.64 3. Marc Lindsay, Georgia 1:42.04 4. Peter Marshall, Stanford 1:42.38 5. Luke Wagner, Virginia 1:42.67 6. Mark Hamleman, Auburn 1:43.21 7. Randal Bal, Stanford 1:43.51 8. Raymond Hunt, Auburn 1:44.18 22. Ryan Earhart, U-M 1:45.74100-yard Freestyle
1. Anthony Ervin, California 41.80!*#$ 2. Roland Schoman, Arizona 42.58 3. Gregory Busse, Auburn 42.65 4. Jamie Rauch, Texas 42.97 5. Ian Crocker, Texas 43.18 6. Carlos Jayme, Florida 43.27 7. Michael Gilliam, Tennessee 43.62 8. Matt Macedo, California 43.66200-yard Breaststroke
1. Brendan Hansen, Texas 1:53.11!*#$ 2. David Denniston, Auburn 1:53.48 3. Kyle Salyards, Georgia 1:56.02 4. Martin Gustavsson, Georgia 1:56.15 5. Ryosuke Imai, Southern Cal 1:56.15 6. Jeff Hackler, Minnesota 1:56.66 7. Gary Marshall, Virginia 1:56.88 8. Andrew Bee, Tennessee 1:57.57200-yard Butterfly
1. Adam Messner, Stanford 1:43.12$ 2. Duncan Sherrard, Florida 1:43.18 3. Greg Reeves, Florida 1:43.44 4. Steven Brown, Stanford 1:44.19 5. Kellan O'Connor, Northwestern 1:44.40 6. Jeff Dash, Arizona 1:44.79 7. Juan Veloz, Arizona 1:45.13 8. Jeff Lee, Southern Cal 1:45.87Platform Diving
1. Kyle Prandi, Miami (Florida) 591.75 2. Justin Dumais, Texas 564.85 3. Omar Ojedam, Arizona 562.80 4. Gabi Chereches, Tennessee 561.00 5. Dan Croaston, Minnesota 545.50 6. Troy Dumais, Texas 542.50 7. Corey Fox, Louisiana State 529.85 8. Caesar Garcia, Auburn 515.40 28. Jason Coben, U-M 321.50400-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Texas 2:49.80!*#$ (Nate Dusing, Tom Hannan, Ian Crocker, Jamie Rauch) 2. California 2:52.12 3. Arizona 2:53.17 4. Tennessee 2:53.67 5. Texas A&M 2:53.70 6. Florida 2:54.05 7. Auburn 2:55.25 8. Arizona State 2:56.02 16. Michigan 2:59.36 (2:58.54) (Jordan Watland, Tim Siciliano, Garrett Mangieri, Dan Ketchum) ! NCAA Record * American Record # U.S. Open Record $ Student Recreation Center Natatorium
Day 1 Results | Day 2 Results
| Michigan All-Americans | |
Tim Siciliano (4): | 400-yard Individual Medley (1st) 1,650-yard Freestyle (2nd) 500-yard Freestyle (5th) 800-yard Freestyle Relay (3rd) |
| Chris Thompson (3): | 1,650-yard Freestyle (1st) 500-yard Freestyle (2nd) 800-yard Freestyle Relay (3rd) |
| Dan Ketchum (3): | 200-yard Freestyle (7th) 500-yard Freestyle (7th) 800-yard Freestyle Relay (3rd) |
| Garrett Mangieri (1): | 800-yard Freestyle Relay (3rd) |
Michigan Honorable Mention All-Americans | |
Dan Ketchum (3): | 1,650-yard Freestyle (13th) 400-yard Medley Relay (15th) 400-yard Freestyle Relay (16th) |
| Jordan Watland (2): | 400-yard Medley Relay (15th) 400-yard Freestyle Relay (16th) |
| Garrett Mangieri (2): | 400-yard Medley Relay (15th) 400-yard Freestyle Relay (16th) |
| Scott Werner (1): | 400-yard Medley Relay (15th) |
| Tim Siciliano (1): | 400-yard Freestyle Relay (16th) |
Q U O T E S
Senior Chris Thompson
On winning an NCAA championship ... "It's awesome. Besides the (Olympic) bronze medal, my next highest goal in swimming was to get an NCAA title, and year after year I've been close. I've had four seconds now and four thirds, and I wanted to get up there and finally get a victory, and I was able to do it today and I'm so happy about it."
On breaking former Wolverine Tom Dolan's records ... "I knew I had to get out there and just go after it. I knew I had the potential to beat Dolan's American record and I just knew I had to get out there to get it done. I just took off and tried to hold on as long as I could."
On Michigan's and the USA's strength in the distance races ... "Michigan has an amazing distance tradition and it's just awesome to be able to add to it. I think this kind of makes a strong statement, this whole entire meet, that United States distance swimming is back. We had 10 guys go under 15 minutes, which is by far better than it's ever been before. I think that U.S. distance swimming is well on its way back to being top in the world."
Contact: Karen Simpson (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
