“It’s all for Richard.” That’s what Auburn coach Brett Hawke explained after his Auburn Tigers clawed and scratched their way towards the 2009 NCAA Swimming and Diving title. The championship was their eighth overall and sixth in the past seven years, but above all – it was perhaps the most meaningful. With head coach Richard Quick unable to attend, the Tigers repeatedly went to the well to find just a little bit more.“He’s back at home, but we know he’s watching us, following us, and really, it’s all…” and that was all the clearly humbled, and clearly emotional Aussie could say.
Key to Auburn's success was the decision by Matt Targett to return for his senior year at Auburn. In the Fall, Quick cited Targett's maturation as a key component of their team's development.
"I am really glad I came home (after Olympics)," said the senior. "This year was a total team effort. Last year we had a few superstars, this year we have an entire team of stars. Richard Quick was a massive part of what we accomplished. He isn't here, but we did this for him, more than for ourselves. We wanted to win his first men's championship for him."
The Tigers claimed the final night with an unrestrained attack of time drops in the morning. They offered up the type of swims that secure championships, and even left Eddie Reese impressed. "If they would have been pretty good, I would have hated it," Reese told the Houston Chronicle, "but they were so good I have to appreciate it." Of course, the boys from Texas were not about to let sentimentality get the best of them as they fought throughout the night.
Texas came out with guns a blazing. Troy Prinsloo of Georgia captured the 1650 freestyle – outdistancing Chad LaTourette by a body length, but Michael Klueh and Jackson Wilcox made up for lost time, in finishing fourth and fifth. Two-thirds into the race Klueh fell off pace, but the bitterest pill came when Washington’s Scott Spansail edged the Longhorn for third by the slimmest of margins – 0.01 seconds. Matt Patton posted the fastest swim of the early heats. His 14:44.13 was good enough for the podium where he finished sixth. David Mosko of Stanford and Joe Kinderwater of North Carolina finished seventh and eighth respectively. The event pushed Texas’ lead to thrity-five.
Michigan’s Tyler Clary put his name into the hat for swimmer-of-the-year awards when he claimed his second event of the meet. A night after wiping Ryan Lochte’s name from the 400 IM record-book, he did the same in the 200 backstroke. Jake Tapp and Omar Pinzon offered a challenge over the front half, but couldn’t stay with the wily Wolverine. Jared White, who got the Auburn party rolling this morning when he dropped nearly five seconds from his seed time, returned to reality along with the rest of the Tiger backstroker. All three dropped spots, while Texas’ Hill Taylor, who squeaked into the big final moved up two spots. Those moves, along with Max Murphy’s fall from ninth to eleventh minimized the damage for the Longhorns who ended the event with a seven-point lead over the Tigers. The other big winner was Florida. Omar Pinzon and Rex Tullius both improved – moving to third and ninth respectively – to launch the Gators into fourth place.
Then it was time for the big boys to come out and play. To the tune of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, Matt Targett led out an impressive field. up against a pair of rising sprint stars in Nathan Adrian (California) and James Feigen (Texas), along with the man who raced Adrian in an Olympic Trials swim-off – Alex Righi. Less than forty-two seconds later it was a near sweep for the United States. Feigen reaffirmed that he has the best start in collegiate swimming, but Adrian took advantage of his seemingly 6’ 14” frame to slip to the front. At the half-way mark, it was a red-white-blue race with Adrian, Feigen, Righi, and Targett all within 0.15. Adrian, with nearly flawless form, ran away from the field and shattered his previous American record with a 41.08. Feigen broke teammate David Walters’ Texas record, finishing in 41.49, while Target – bounced around between the two American giants. Alex Righi closed out his Yale career with a second-place 41.64 while Walters finished fifth – the fifth swimmer under 42.0 seconds – and kept Texas ahead by seven.
Georgia picked up its second win of the night when Neil Versfeld reclaimed his NCAA record with a 1:51.40 in the 200 breaststroke. Cal’s Sean Mahoney broke the record in the morning, but Versfeld was lethal off the walls. The pair dueled stroke-for-stroke over the first half of the race. An adrenaline-filled Adam Klein of Auburn went out with them, putting the Texas squad in the awkward position of rooting for Stanford. Klein held off John Criste for fourth place, but couldn’t stay ahead of defending champion Paul Kornfeld. California’s Martti Aljand and Nolan Koon finished sixth and seventh respectively, while Clark Burckle of Florida finished 8th. When the dust settled however, it was Auburn 437, Texas 436, and Stanford sneaking up from behind with 399.5.
Last summer the Georgia Bulldogs established themselves as a premier producer of 200 butterfliers. Gil Stovall and Mark Dylla both finaled at the Olympic Trials. Dylla looked to replicate his teammate’s win of a year ago, but again Shaune Fraser of Florida stole the show. Dylla led out the field with Fraser and Auburn’s Logan Madison in tow. By now the Auburn swimmers were not swimming their best races – but really, at this point, they’d earned the right to enjoy the moment. Fraser pushed past Dylla with 25 yards to go to edge the Bulldog 1:40.75 to 1:40.85 and better his NCAA record of the morning. Madison finished third in 1:41.70 with teammate Tyler McGill finishing fifth behind Stanford’s Bobby Bollier. USC’s Nick Walkotten, Stanford’s David Moskow and AJ Tipton rounded out the final. While the event went to Florida, the ultimate win went to Auburn who pushed ahead by 37 points.
Onto platform diving where Purdue Olympian, David Boudia, would assert his dominance on the event establishing a new meet record of 530.45. Also exceeding the meet record was Texas’ Drew Livingston and for the fans in the burnt orange he provided a brief glimmer of hope. However, as with the Auburn swimmers the Tiger divers neutralized the Longhorns every chance they got and in the preliminaries the two Auburn Divers combined for 13 points allowing Texas to gain only 4 points on the romping Tiger crew who still held a commanding lead of 33 points.
With the meet essentially in the bag, the Tigers could truly afford to cruise through the 400 freestyle relay, but the boys from Toomer’s corner haven’t cruised anything all week and the last relay would be no exception. American Record-Holder Nathan Adrian got Cal off to an early lead with Feigen right behind, but Andkjaer gave Auburn the lead-off they needed to put them in contention slightly ahead of Stanford. Arizona and Michigan would fight for fifth, while the Gators would square off with the Gophers for seventh which doesn’t seem like a fair fight according to PETA. Matt Targett dropped a 40.95 to put the Tigers in first with Texas four tenths behind. Kohlton Norys kept the Orange and Blue ahead, but on the final leg Dave Walters gave the Longhorn faithful a race to remember turning even with Auburn’s Tyler McGill on the final wall, but his 41.10 split couldn’t quite close the deal as Auburn won in 2:46.67 to Texas’ American Record 2:47.02. Cal finished in third with Bennett Clark storming past Stanford’s Jason Dunford in 41.22 while Jake Tapp of Arizona pulled out similar heroics in tracking down Michigan to nab the fifth spot. In the aforementioned battle between the toothy Gators and Gophers Roberto Gomez of Florida out-split Kevin Baseheart to give Florida seventh with Minnesota finishing .04 behind in eighth.
Following the relay win, all of the Auburn athletes and staff gathered behind the blocks to celebrate Richard Quick’s record setting 13th NCAA Championship and his first on the men’s side. This was truly a momentous win that very few of us in the swimming world foresaw last month and clearly shows that sport is about much more than technique and training as heart and inspiration are equally, if not more important.
College Swimming Coaches Association of America Award Winners
Coach of the Year: Richard Quick and Brett Hawke, Auburn
Swimmer of the Year: Tyler Clary, Michigan
Diving Coach of the Year: Adam Soldati, Purdue
Diver of the Year: David Boudia, Purdue
PS, The price of hosting a National Championship is at least the cost of one broken lane line as the weight of the Tigers proved too much for maroon and white buoys. (PS, Texas may have to contribute to the replacement of the line as one of their boys pocketed a maroon disk- some rivalries are bigger than others)
