To some, a 13th place finish might seem unlucky. But for the Virginia men's swimming team, 13th place at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships did not seem ill-omened. But it was perhaps a little short of the team's expectations.
"It was a great experience," freshman Luke Wagner said. "It was exciting to be [at the NCAAs] and a huge honor to be able to represent the team. But I think we left disappointed with our performance."
Six freshmen, one sophomore and three seniors qualified to represent the Cavaliers in College Station, Texas, at Texas A&M's Student Recreation Center Natatorium this past weekend. They walked away with 82 points and Virginia's second-highest finish at the NCAAs ever, next to the Cavaliers' 12th place finish at the 2000 championships.
Saturday, the last day of competition, brought Virginia up from 18th place in the overall team standings to 12th. Freshman Luke Wagner set a new school record in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing in 1 minute, 42.67 seconds to take fifth place.
"I wasn't really expecting to do that at NCAAs," Wagner said. "I thought it would have happened earlier [in the season]. I was surprised and thrilled."
Freshman Gary Marshall grabbed seventh place in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:56.88 on Saturday as well, after qualifying in the preliminaries with a third place personal best time of 1:55.78.
Virginia's performances in the 1,650 freestyle and 400 free relay also helped pull the Cavaliers up to a strong finish.
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Cavalier freshman Ian Prichard, sophomore Dan DeMarco and senior Jamie Grimes finished ninth, 10th and 15th, respectively in the 1,650 free. DeMarco's time of 14:59.62 was a career best finish. Virginia's team of freshmen Luke Anderson, Jonathan Haag, Adam Kerpelman and senior Troy Johnson ended the NCAAs on a strong note, placing 14th in the 400 free relay, the last event of competition.
"We got off to a little bit of a shaky start," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "But once we settled down and realized what we were up against - that we were more capable - we had a tremendous last day. I was very pleased with the focus, the intensity, the effort and ultimately the performance that we had" at the NCAAs.
The Cavaliers' performance for the first two days of competition was not entirely indicative of the final results, but nevertheless, Virginia picked up some important early victories.
In the first finals contest of the NCAAs, the Cavalier team of Anderson, Haag, Kerpelman and Johnson picked up a 16th-place finish in the 200 free relay. Another Cavalier relay team of Wagner, Marshall, Kerpelman and Johnson took 12th-place in the 400 medley relay also on Thursday.
Prichard was the individual star for Virginia on Thursday, taking 11th place in the 500 free.
Prichard also stood out on Friday when he placed 15th in the 200 free and anchored Virginia's 12th-place 800 free relay team, along with Kerpelman, Wagner and Anderson. But though Prichard made it to the finals competition in three individual events (including the 1,650 free), he was let down slightly by his performance.
"It was less than I hoped for as far as swimming went," Prichard said. But being at the NCAAs "was just as exciting as I expected to be. I definitely think it's beneficial to know what to expect for next year."
The Cavalier team of Wagner, Marshall, Kerpelman and Haag took 16th in the 200 medley relay on Friday as well.
Overall, the freshmen of the Cavalier squad provided strength and were the key to Virginia's success at the NCAAs. Though 13th place at the championships was the culmination of the Cavaliers' 2001 season, next year they can hope for more.
"When you realize that 70 percent of our NCAA scoring team returns next year that's a tremendous amount of NCAA experience now under their belt," Bernardino said. "I think that speaks very well for the future"
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