March 25, 2006
ATLANTA (SMU) - The SMU men's swimming and diving team wrapped up a great weekend at the NCAA Championships with the Mustangs finishing in 19th place. SMU scored 38 points at the meet and also had seven swimmers earn All-America accolades. The finish is a huge jump from last season, when SMU finished 30th, scoring just five points, and had three All-Americans. This season's finish is SMU's highest since 2001, when the `Stangs took 12th.
Saturday's finals were highlighted by Ian Clark's 12th-place finish in the 200 back. Clark touched in 1:44.18, a new career-best, after setting a then-career-best time of 1:45.20 in the prelims.
The Mustangs' 400 free relay team of Alex Hetland, Per Nylin, Luka Vrtovec and Emilio Garmendia also scored for SMU as the squad touched in 2:58.69 to finish 15th in the evening's consolation final.
"Ian had a tremendous swim tonight. He swam from lane eight and led the majority of the race. He got us off to a great start and it was really a nice way for him to end his career," said SMU Head Coach Eddie Sinnott. "During the meet, we had some surprises and some setbacks, but as a team, we're really excited to be back in the top 20. Hopefully, this will propel us closer toward our goal of the top 10."
