The NCAA News - News and Features

March 23, 1998

Division I Men's Swimming and Diving

Auburn, Stanford look like favorites

Event: 1998 Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.

Overview: Defending titlist Auburn is hoping for a little home-pool advantage as it hosts the championships. At the Southeastern Conference championships, the Tigers swept all five relays and finished Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the 50-yard freestyle, 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle. Mike Bratz set conference records in the 100 backstroke and as part of the 200 freestyle relay team. Sophomore Brett Hawke looks to de-
fend his 50 freestyle title .... No. 1-ranked Stanford hopes to win its fourth title this decade. Senior Scott Claypool set two Pacific-10 Conference Championships records to lead the Cardinal to its 17th straight conference title. The team won 12 of the 21 events contested, including four of the five relays. Claypool set records in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. Senior Tom Wilkins, defending Division I champion
in the 400 individual medley, also was a double winner in the 200 breaststroke and 400 individual medley .... Texas, the 1996 champion, wants the title back. The Longhorns are led by Big 12 Conference swimmer-of-the-year Neil Walker and a host of freshmen, including Big 12 newcomer-of-the-year Nate Dusing. Dusing claimed five conference titles (three individual and two relays) .... Tennessee looks
to improve on last year's fifth-place finish. Heading the Vols' charge is Jeremy Linn, who won three individual Division I championships and owns the American record in the 100 breaststroke. Also returning are Craig Gilliam and Adam Eagle, who join Linn to make up three of the four members of the American record-holding 200 medley relay team.

Field: The maximum number of participants allowed is 270. All qualifiers who have met the "A" standard will be admitted in the meet; those who have met the "B" time standard will be considered until the event is filled. No team is allowed more than 18 competitors.

Dates and site: The championships will be March 26-28 at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center at Auburn.

Television coverage: ESPN will air coverage of the championship at 12:30 a.m. (Eastern time) April 5.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 5199 for the list of qualifiers, 5200 for the first day's results, 5201 for the second day's results and 5202 for the final day's results. Individual and team results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championships results will be published in the April 6 issue of The NCAA News.