UW's Rice, Relay Team Gain NCAA Consideration
November 29, 2007 | Men's Swimming & Diving
For the UW men's swimming and diving team, day one of the three day Texas Invitational on Thursday night saw both its 200-yard freestyle team and Scott Rice gain consideration for the NCAA tournament. The event took place in Austin, Texas, at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
"On both sides (men's and women's) swam really well where we're at," said head coach Eric Hansen. "All in all, it was a good day."
In the first final of the day, Wisconsin's 200-yard freestyle relay team gained consideration for the NCAA tournament with a time of 1:20.46. Mike Desautels (Bloomfield, Mich.), Mike Swanson (Lancaster, Pa.), Phil Davies (Rye, N.Y.) and Mitch Buenger (Racine, Wis.) led UW to a fifth place finish in the event.
Junior Scott Rice (Des Moines, Wash.) too put forth an effort that will give him consideration for the NCAAs in the next men's final. Rice swam an excellent 100-yard butterfly to put up a time of 48.16, 15th best overall. Rice also finished the 200-yard IM in 1:49.71 to take 20th place in the event.
Following Rice's performance in the butterfly, Michael Hopkins (Wilmington, Del.) and Mike Swanson finished next to each other in the 500-yard freestyle at 27th and 28th place. Hopkins clocked in at a time of 4:34.21, while Swanson finished right after at 4:35.82.
Caleb Percevecz (Scottsdale, Ariz.) represented UW well in the diving finals. The young freshman tied for fourth place in the 1-meter dive with a score of 304.5.
Mike Desautels was the top Badger in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.58, good for 24th place.
In the final event of the day, Wisconsin's 400-yard medley relay team was just seconds away from becoming UW's second relay squad to gain consideration for the NCAAs. The team of Derrick O'Donnell (McFarland, Wis.), Eric Johnson (Federal Way, Wash.), Scott Rice and Mike Desautels garnered a seventh place finish with a time of 3:17.99.
Scott Rice was a standout for Wisconsin in the preliminary events. Rice finished in 22nd place in both the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard IM strokes, clocking a 48.85 in the butterfly and 1:51.48 in the IM.
In his lone prelim of the day, Caleb Percevecz too performed at a high level. The Arizona-native placed fourth among the 21 competitors, pulling through with a score of 284.30.
Other solid performances in the prelims included junior Kyle Sorensen (Palatine, Ill.), who placed 33rd in the 100-yard butterfly (49.84) and 26th in the 50-yard freestyle (20.63), junior Mike Desautels who placed 24th in the 50-yard freestyle (20.56) and 42nd in the 100-yard butterfly and junior Mike Hopkins, who placed 26th in the 500-yard freestyle (4:35.86).
Complete results from the invite can be found here .
The Badgers continue their run in the Texas Invitational tomorrow, with the 400-yard IM, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard medley relay, 800-yard freestyle relay and 3-meter dive set to occur. Competition will start at 10 a.m. at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texas.
