Vanderkaay, Relay Team Place Runner-up at Nationals

Friday, March 24

Atlanta, Ga.

Noon

Michigan

NCAA Championships (Day 2)

3/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Three Big Ten Conference and school records fell as the University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team jumped three spots to ninth place (132 points) on Friday (March 24) at the NCAA Championships at Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.

Davis Tarwater (Knoxville, Tenn./Webb School) swam to the first conference and school record time of the day in the morning, touching the wall in 46.16 for the second-best time in the 100-yard butterfly preliminaries. The captain was unable to match his record time in the finals, but his time of 46.33 helped earn his second consecutive fourth-place finish in the event.

In the meet's next event, the 200-yard freestyle, Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich./Adams) followed up his 500-yard NCAA title swim on day one to match his second-place finish from the 2005 Championships. En route to his finish, Vanderkaay broke his own Big Ten and school record, touching the wall in 1:33.40.

Also scoring for Michigan in the 200 free was Vanderkaay's classmate, Chris DeJong (Holland, Mich./Holland). Despite making it to the evening's events as the last spot, DeJong put together a personal best by nearly one second to capture first in the consolation final in 1:34.60 for ninth place overall. Simon Burnett of Arizona successfully defended his title in the event with a U.S. Open and NCAA record of 1:31.20.

The third record to fall came in the night's final event, the 800-yard freestyle relay, as the quartet of Vanderkaay, DeJong, Alex Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich./Adams) and Tarwater swam a time of 6:18.11 for second overall. The finish narrowly missed the American record by just 0.11 seconds but edged the previous conference and school record set at last year's NCAAs by 0.06.

Alex Vanderkaay earned Michigan's first points of the day in the 400-yard individual medley. The 2006 Big Ten champion in the event took sixth in the finals after touching in at 3:45.93 to earn 13 points. Ryan Lochte of Florida placed first in the event (3:38.15), breaking former Wolverine Tom Dolan's 11-year NCAA record by 0.03 seconds.

Tarwater will look to defend his 2005 title in the 200-yard butterfly on the third and final day of the NCAA Championships, with preliminaries at noon and the finals starting at 7 p.m.

Top 10 Teams (After Day 2)

 1. Arizona 336.5 2. Auburn 331.5 3. Stanford 244.5 4. Texas 220 5. Florida 203 6. California 182.5 7. Southern Cal. 157 8. Northwestern 133.5 9. MICHIGAN 132 10. Georgia 120

Top Eight/U-M Finishes (Day 2)

200-yard Medley Relay 1. Arizona 1:23.88*#$^% (Albert Subirats, Dave Rollins, Lyndon Ferns, Simon Burnett) 2. Auburn 1:25.08 3. California 1:25.37 4. Northwestern 1:25.72! 5. Texas 1:25.79 6. Southern Cal. 1:26.06 7. Florida 1:29.90 -- Stanford DQ 400-yard Individual Medley 1. Ryan Lochte, Florida 3:38.15*^% 2. Ous Mellouli, Southern Cal 3:39.47 3. Eric Shanteau, Auburn 3:44.27 4. Sebastien Rouault, Georgia 3:44.63 5. Bradley Ally, Florida 3:45.67 6. Alex Vanderkaay, U-M 3:45.93 7. Gal Nevo, Arizona 3:48.35 8. Mark Stephens, Stanford 3:51.64 100-yard Butterfly 1. Lyndon Ferns, Arizona 45.89% 2. Albert Subirats, Arizona 46.02 3. Sam Masson, Southern Cal 46.09 4. Davis Tarwater, U-M 46.33 (46.16@!) 5. Kyle Bubolz, Northwestern 46.43 6. Milorad Cavic, California 46.56 7. Alexei Puninski, Auburn 46.60 8. Christopher Sullivan, Oakland 47.04 200-yard Freestyle 1. Simon Burnett, Arizona 1:31.20*$^% 2. Peter Vanderkaay, U-M 1:33.31@! 3. Dominik Keichtry, California 1:33.75 4. Matt McGinnis, Texas 1:33.93 5. Andy Grant, Stanford 1:34.04 6. Rory Connell, Auburn 1:34.80 7. Adam Ritter, Arizona 1:35.06 8. Shaun Phillips, Stanford 1:35.51 9. Chris DeJong, U-M 1:34.60 30. Bobby Savulich, U-M 1:37.76 33. Matt Patton, U-M 1:38.09 100-yard Breaststroke 1. Henrique Barbosa, California 52.52% 2. Kevin Swander, Indiana 52.54! 3. Dave Rollins, Arizona 52.91 4. Tyler O'Halloran, Texas 52.95 5. Vlad Polyakov, Alabama 53.07 6. Matthew Lowe, Texas 53.18 7. Paul Kornfeld, Stanford 53.38 8. Nate Cass, Stanford 53.62 100-yard Backstroke 1. Matt Grevers, Northwestern 45.93 2. Doug Van Wie, Auburn 46.22 3. Nick Thoman, Arizona 46.67 4. Ben Hesen, Indiana 46.80 David Cromwell, Harvard 46.80 6. Hongzhe Sun, Stanford 46.88 7. Albert Subirats, Arizona 46.89 8. David Plummer, Minnesota 47.07 Three-Meter Diving 1. Chris Cowill, Georgia 460.95 2. Joona Puhakka, Arizona State 413.05 3. Steven Segerlin, Auburn 401.20 4. Philip Griffin, SMU 373.95 5. Kellan Harkness, Ohio State 369.25 6. Steve LoBue, Purdue 358.40 7. Taylor Roberts, Indiana 350.00 8. Michael Hilde, Southern Cal 337.90 800-yard Freestyle Relay 1. Arizona 6:16.67*$^% (Simon Burnett, Lyndon Ferns, Tyler Deberry, Adam Ritter) 2. MICHIGAN 6:18.11@! (Peter Vanderkaay, Chris DeJong, Alex Vanderkaay, Davis Tarwater) 3. Texas 6:19.61 4. Florida 6:21.69 5. Stanford 6:21.71 6. Auburn 6:21.90 7. Georgia 6:24.73 8. Southern Cal 6:25.20 * NCAA record # U.S. Open record $ American record ^ NCAA Meet record ! Big Ten Conference record @ Michigan school record % Georgia Tech Aquatic Center record