Lochte Wins NCAA Swimming Title; Florida Sixth After Day 2

Friday, March 26

East Meadow, N.Y.

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

NCAA Championships

Lochte Wins NCAA Swimming Title; Florida Sixth After Day 2

Saturday, March 27, 2004 | Men's Swimming & Diving

Sophomore Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) broke the American, U.S. Open and NCAA records in winning the 400-meter individual medley and leading No. 5 Florida to sixth place entering the final day of competition at the 2004 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships Friday evening at the Nassau County Aquatic Center.

Auburn leads the competition with 435 points with Stanford in second (248.5), Texas in third (246) Arizona in fourth (225) and Michigan in fifth (197). Florida is sixth with 177 points.

Florida earned 14 All-America honors on Friday, giving the Gators 25 for the meet – the 25th time Florida has earned at least 20 honors at an NCAA meet. Florida also set school records in six of seven events during the day.

“We needed to swim this way yesterday, but today was a really good day for us,” Florida coach Gregg Troy said. “I was really pleased with the way our kids swam today. We're still digging our way out of yesterday's hole, but we're in pretty good shape going into tomorrow.”

Lochte's win was the 26th NCAA title in school history and the first in the 400 individual medley since Greg Burgess won the event in back-to-back seasons in 1993-94. Lochte led the race from start to finish in beating the previous NCAA and U.S. Open records by more than a second. He's the first Gator to win an NCAA title since junior Adam Sioui (Ontario, Canada) won the 200-yard freestyle in 2002.

“Coach Troy and I talked about this at the beginning of the year – winning NCAAs, as well as making the Olympic Trials and the Olympic team,” Lochte said. “It was a really big change going from short course yards to short course meters, but I'm happy to have won – it means a lot to me.”

Finals began on a high note for the Gators as the 200-meter medley relay team of Gabriel Mangabeira (Piratininga, Brazil), freshman Bill Mrazek (Tallahassee, Fla.), senior Chris Kellam (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) and Jayme shaved more than one second off their prelim time to win the consolation finals with a school-record time of 1:37.81. In winning the heat by nearly one full second, Florida added 18 points to its score, giving the Gators 95.

Lochte followed with his triumph in the 400-meter individual medley to bring Florida's point total to 115 before Mangabeira took 15th in the 100- meter butterfly with a time of 53.56. Earlier in the day, he set the Florida record with a mark of 52.16.

Sioui finished fourth in the 200-meter freestyle with a school-record time of 1:45.28. Sioui's time was less than three tenths of a second behind the winning time of 1:45.04 and marked the third time he earned All- America honors in the event. Jayme won the consolation finals with a time of 1:46.25 – the third-best time in school history. With the two finished, Florida boosted its point total to 141.

Kellam picked up the third All-America honors of his career in the 100- meter backstroke by touching the wall in 14th with a time of 53.37. Mangabeira followed in 16th with a time of 54.21. Mangabeira had set another Florida record earlier in the afternoon with a time of 52.55. With the two finishes, Florida's point total rose to 145 entering the final event of the evening.

The Florida team of Lochte, junior Kris Wiebeck (Tampa, Fla.), Sioui and sophomore Brian Hartley (Indianapolis, Ind.) finished with a school- record time of 7:06.95 in the 800-meter freestyle relay to earn 32 more points for the Gators.

Prelims for the final day of competition will begin at noon with finals of the 1,500-meter freestyle scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m. Live results can be found at www.nliac.com

Top 10 Standings

1.Auburn 435

2.Stanford 248.5

3.Texas 246

4.Arizona 225

5.Michigan 197

6.Florida 177

7.California 170.5

8.Tennessee 125

9.Northwestern 93

10.Minnesota 82

Complete Florida Results