Despite the poor weather conditions that hung over Hillenbrand Aquatic Center this afternoon, the fifth-ranked Arizona men’s swimming and diving team improved their record to 4-1 (1-1, Pac-10), upsetting No. 4 California, 124-118 for the first time in 14 years, while also downing No.12 Michigan, 122-121.
"This was a pretty awesome finish for us," head swimming Coach Frank Busch said. "To come from behind and win the meet in the final relay was very exciting. This is a hard time of year for the kids because the only thing they do is eat, sleep and swim every single day, which makes them pretty flat. But I am very proud of the guys and the way they hung in there."
The meet got off to a bang with Arizona nabbing the 400 Medley Relay. The Wildcats set the pace early on, putting a second on California until Jernej Godec brought the Bears within a whisker on the butterfly. That was as close as they'd get though. Despite swimming stroke for stroke with Arizona's Adam Ritter, Nathan Adrian couldn't overcome him and the Cats got an early 13-4 lead on both squads.
Michigan's Matt Patton (Matthews, N.C./Butler) captured two victories during the competition. In the 800-meter freestyle he was able to clock a time of 8:22.80, more than six seconds ahead of Arizona's Matt Biel. Johnny Austerman and Christian Sprang gave the Wolverines three of the top four finishes which whittled Arizona's lead to two.
Cal picked up a win in the 200 freestyle. After spotting Charlie Houchin and Jean Basson an early lead, he dropped the hammer and the field when he outsplit Houchin and Basson by over a second in the final length. Houchin's touchout of Basson gave the Blue a one-point lead over the Wildcats.
The Bears didn't have to wait long for their second victory - all of about 23.62 seconds. That was how long it took Godec to traverse 50 meters, just ahead of Subirats and teammate William Copeland. The event also exposed Michigan's chief weakness - a dearth of (or at least exhausted group of) sprint freestylers. Chris Brady finished well behind the pack in 24.36 while Bobby Savulich and Charlie Houchin were a full two seconds behind the front line of Cal's Nathan Adrian (51.45) and Arizona's Nicholas Nilo (51.65).
What they lacked in sprints, they made up for in strokes and from here they went on a run. Andre Schultz upset Cal sophomore David Russell in the 200 backstroke. After Patton's win in the 400, Freshman Scott Spann gave Michigan it's third straight vicotry en route to a 'B' cut in the 200-meter breaststroke. Spann dominated the race, finishing nearly six seconds faster than runner-up Josh Arreguin of Arizona. Grant Burtch touched third giving them two of the top three finishes.
The Wolverines were even stronger in the 200-meter butterfly - sweeping the top three spots via the labors of Curtis Dauw, Alex Vanderkaay, and Dane Grenda.
The victories set the stage for what would seem to be a final showdown in the 400 freestyle relay. Heading into the final event Arizona trailed Michigan 107-117 and Cal 111-114. Adrian led off .23 slower than his individual time of 51.45, but it was enough to hand the lead off to Copeland. Copeland protected the lead against Nilo. By this time Michigan, needing either a win or a 2-3 finish, was seeing their potential upset blow away in the Arizona wind. By the time Joel Greenshields outsplit Godec 51.39-52.60 on the third leg it was apparent that Cal's lead had similarly disappeared. Florida-transfer Darian Townsend assured it with his final 51.16 split over Meichtry (52.06).
Arizona returns to action when they host Stanford on January 12 at 2 p.m. (MST) at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. Michigan and Cal will tangle again tomorrow when both teams take on Arizona State. Unofficially, Cal put up 123 points to Michigan's 120 though scores were not kept. Check back tomorrow for those.
