NCCA Men's Swimming | Arizona sweeps swim titles

FEDERAL WAY — Two national championships in two weekends. What will Arizona swimming coach Frank Busch do for an encore?

"Right now I think Frank's really tired and really happy," said longtime Arizona assistant coach Rick DeMont. "I think he'd just like to lie down on a couch, take a few deep breaths and just relax with a big smile."

In his 38th year as a swimming coach, and 19th as head men's and women's coach at Arizona, Busch has finally landed the Big One. Two weeks in a row.

Benefiting from a deep, senior-heavy roster spearheaded by 2004 Olympians Albert Subirats (Venezuela) and Darian Townsend (South Africa), Arizona won its first men's NCAA swimming and diving championship in the program's 36-year history Saturday night, snapping a streak of five straight titles won by Auburn.

Last weekend at Ohio State, Busch coached the Arizona women's team to its first national title at the women's NCAA meet at Ohio State. On Saturday night, Busch was named the NCAA swimming coach of the year.

Saturday night at the King County Aquatic Center, Arizona racked up 500.5 points, far outpacing second-place Texas, which had 406. Stanford (344) and California (332.5) followed in third and fourth. Auburn finished in fifth with 316 points.

Arizona won the final event of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay, with a furious finish by Joel Greenshields. Moments after the time (2 minutes, 49.01 seconds) was posted, Busch and DeMont embraced in a body-jolting hug that alternately lifted both men off their feet.

"This is big time," said DeMont, an assistant in his 20th year at Arizona. "You don't get a lot of big times in life, and this is one of the big times."

Since 1985, just three schools — Auburn, Texas and Stanford — have won 22 of the previous 23 championships. (Michigan won in 1995.)

The Wildcats, ranked No. 2 entering the meet, posted five event titles, six second-place finishes and three thirds during the three-day competition. On Saturday night, freshman Cory Chitwood took second in the 200 backstroke (1:41.2) and junior Nicolas Nilo placed third in the 100 free (42.42).

Notes

• The night's biggest roar came when Auburn's Cesar Cielo touched the wall at the end of the 100 free in 40.92 seconds, making the Brazilian the first to ever break the 41-second mark in the event. (Because the race is measured in yards, the time is not a world record.)

Earlier in the day in his preliminary heat, Cielo broke his own 100 free record (41.17) by posting a time of 41.12. He now owns 10 NCAA titles, an Auburn record.

• Gil Stovall, a Georgia senior, set a new NCAA record in the 200 butterfly, winning in 1:41.33, breaking a mark of 1:41.78 (Melvin Stewart, Tennessee) that had stood since 1991.

At Federal Way

(All distances in yards)

INDIVIDUAL FINALS

100 free -- 1, Cesar Cielo, Auburn, 40.92 seconds (meet record, breaks old record of 41.12 set by Cielo in preliminaries on Saturday). 2, Alex Righi, Yale, 42.13. 3, Nicolas Nilo, Arizona, 42.42.

200 back -- 1, Patrick Schirk, Penn State, 1:40.22. 2, Cory Chitwood, Arizona, 1:41.34. 3, Roland Rudolf, Florida, 1:41.49.

200 stroke -- 1, Paul Kornfield, Stanford, 1:53.11. 2, Scott Spann, Michigan, 1:54.16. 3, Sean Mahoney, California, 1:54.65.

200 fly -- 1, Gil Stovall, Georgia, 1:41.33 (meet record, breaks old record of 1:41.78 set by Melvin Stewart of Tennessee in 1991). 2, Mark Dylla, Georgia, 1:42.08. 3, Danny Beal, Stanford, 1:42.79.

1,650 free -- 1, Sebastien Rouault, Georgia, 14:26.86. 2, Troy Prinsloo, Georgia, 14:28.06. 3, Michael Klueh, Texas, 14:36.07.

400 free relay -- 1, Arizona (Albert Subirats, Darian Townsend, Nicolas Nilo, Joel Greenshields), 2:49.01. 2, Auburn, 2:49.48. 3, California, 2:50.87.

Platform diving -- 1, Sean Moore, Ohio State, 478.20 points (meet record, breaks old record of 469.30 set by Steven Segerlin of Auburn in 2006). 2, Chris Colwill, Georgia, 460.60. 3, David Colutri, Purdue, 453.65.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

1, Arizona, 500.5 points. 2, Texas, 406. 3, Stanford, 344. 4, California, 332.5. 5, Auburn, 316. 6, Michigan, 271.5. 7, Georgia, 229. 8, Florida, 210. 9, Tennessee, 172. 10, Indiana, 166. 11, Minnesota, 137.5. 12, Northwestern, 85. 13, Texas A&M, 78. 14. Southern Methodist, 71. 15, Virginia, 69. 16, Ohio State, 63. 17, Miami, 59. 18, Arizona State, 51. 19, Kentucky, 47. 20, Yale, 40. 21, Florida State, 39. 22, Alabama, 37. 23 (tie), Penn State and Hawaii, 33. 25, Purdue, 25. 26, Louisville, 24. 27, Oakland (Mich.), 23. 28, Princeton, 21. 29 (tie), North Carolina and Louisiana State, 20. 31, Harvard, 19. 32, Denver, 16. 33, West Virginia, 14. 34 (tie), Pittsburgh and California-Irvine, 11. 36, Southern California, 9. 37, Virginia Tech, 8. 38, Missouri, 5. 39, Wisconsin, 4. 40, Cincinnati, 3. 41, Notre Dame, 2.