Men's Swimming Finishes 13th at NCAAs
March 29, 2003 | Men's Swimming & Diving
The University of Wisconsin men's swimming team finished 13th at the NCAA Championships with 105 points, recording the highest point total in UW history at a national meet.
'Overall, I'm very happy,' said UW coach Eric Hansen. 'Our main objective was to score 100 points which is a tremendous improvement from where we've been in the past. To score 105 (points) is definitely a success and a sign of what's to come in the future especially since we have all but one of our NCAA scorers coming back next year.'
The Badgers improved upon their 18th-place finish of a year ago and more than doubled their point total of 41.5 points. The previous best national point total was 43 in 2001.
Wisconsin also picked up a record 24 All-America and honorable mention All-America honors. The Badgers had four All-Americans and 20 honorable mention honors.
'The accolades that our men achieved was right on line with what we thought we could do,' said Hansen. 'We have the talent and it 's a group of hardworking guys. It's really fun to be a part of such a great team atmosphere.'
The Badgers competed in only one final on the last day of competition. The team of Matt Marshall, Eric Wiesner, Adam Mania and Dale Rogers finished ninth in the 400 free relay in 2:56.03.
Hansen credited Marshall for his leadership role on the team. 'Matt Marshall really led us. His versatility really came through for us.
'We can take a step back and be really pleased with what we did this year.'
In the preliminaries, Mania just missed qualifying for the finals of the 200-yard backstroke as he finished 17th in 1:45.65. In the 100-yard freestyle, Rogers finished 29th in 44.15 while Wiesner was 51st in 45.09. Pat Torpey also competed in the morning session finishing 29th in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:47.59.
