The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
McGinnis, Weber-Gale pace Men's Swimming and Diving on first day of NCAA Championships
03.24.2005 | Men's Swimming and Diving
MINNEAPOLIS -- Freshman Matthew McGinnis (Raleigh, N.C.) placed seventh in the 500-yard freestyle final and sophomore Garrett Weber-Gale (Fox Point, Wis.) took eighth in the final of the 50-yard freestyle to lead The University of Texas on Thursday at the 2005 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. At the conclusion of the first day of competition, Texas sits in 11th place with 50 points. Two-time defending national champion Auburn is in first with 172 points with Arizona (130) and Cal-Berkeley (126) in second and third, respectively.
McGinnis, who had posted the second-fastest mark (4:15.59) all-time at UT in the preliminary swim of the 500-yard freestyle, clocked in at 4:17.42 in the final to earn the first All-America honor of his career and establish the eighth-fastest standard on UT record. Michigan's Peter Vanderkaay successfully defended his title with a time of 4:09.82 with Arizona's Tyler Deberry (4:14.35) and Minnesota's Justin Mortimer (4:14.45) rounded out the top three.
Following McGinnis' performance in the 500-yard freestyle, junior David Kahn (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) joined McGinnis as a first-time All-American by placing 16th in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:48.30.
Weber-Gale followed by capturing his second All-America of the day and sixth of his career after earning eighth-place in the championship final of the 50-yard freestyle in 19.57. Auburn's Fred Bousquet, who became the first swimmer to go under 19 seconds with an NCAA and U.S. Open record of 18.74 in the prelims, posted the second sub-19-second performance of the day and NCAA history to earn his third-straight title in the 50 freestyle.
The Longhorns' 200-yard freestyle relay team posted the sixth-fastest time of 1:17.80 in the championship final to open Thursday's finals events. The quartet of sophomore Tyler O'Halloran (Boardman, Ohio), seniors Austin McAnally (McKinney, Texas) and Daniel DiToro (Brant Rock, Mass) and Weber-Gale, which had combined to post a mark of 1:17.76 in the prelims, clocked in .04 off that mark in the championship final. Recording the two fastest times in the event as well as NCAA history were Cal-Berkeley, which won the event with an NCAA and U.S Open record time of 1:15.78, and Auburn, which took second in 1:16.00. The All-America honor marked the sixth of DiToro's career while it was the second for McAnally and O'Halloran in the event and of their careers.
Texas' 400-yard medley relay squad was disqualified due to an early start in the morning preliminaries.
The second day of competition of the 2005 NCAA Men 's Swimming and Diving Championships will begin at noon on Friday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
Thursday's NCAA Championships Notes: Seeded ninth according to the NCAA official psyche sheet with the season-best time of 1:80.50, Texas' 200-yard freestyle relay quartet of sophomore Tyler O'Halloran, seniors Austin McAnally and Daniel DiToro and sophomore Garrett Weber-Gale shaved off .72 to post the fifth-fastest qualifying time of 1:17.78 ... freshman Matthew McGinnis, who won the 2005 Big 12 Conference title in the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 4:20.87, dropped 5.28 seconds off his personal best en route to the sixth-fastest qualifying time - 4:15.59 - in the 500-yard freestyle ... McGinnis' time of 4:15.59 marks the second-fastest time in UT history to former Longhorn Matt Hooper, who set Texas' fastest standard of 4:15.38 at the 1996 NCAA Championships ... senior Rainer Kendrick, the 2005 Big 12 Champion in the 200-yard IM, missed qualifying for the 200-yard IM final by one spot as he finished with the 17th-fastest preliminary time of 1:59.67, just .03 off Northwestern's Mike Alexandrov, who earned the 16th and final qualifying spot in 1:46.64 ... sophomore Garrett Weber-Gale's mark of 19.39 in the preliminaries of the 50-yard freestyle marked the seventh-fastest all-time at UT ... Weber-Gale's clocking places him fourth, behind Neil Walker (19.08), Ian Crocker (19.18) and Shaun Jordan (19.20) - on UT's all-time top-10 list of individuals in the 50-yard freestyle ... O'Halloran, fresh off setting a new school standard of 1:17.86 in the 200-yard freestyle relay by swimming the leadoff split in 20.02, clocked in at 19.73 in the preliminaries of the 50-yard freestyle, which marked the 17th-fastest morning swim and second straight event in which a Texas swimmer missed qualifying for Thursday's finals by one spot ... O'Halloran was .02 of a second behind Cal-Berkely's Jonas Tilly, who earned the 16th and final qualifying spot in 19.71.
Team Standings - as of Thursday, March 24
1. Auburn - 172
2. Arizona - 130
3. Cal-Berkeley - 126
4. Stanford - 120
5. Florida - 86
6. Northwestern - 69
7. Minnesota - 65
8. Georgia - 62
9. Michigan - 58
10. Southern Cal - 52
11. TEXAS - 50
Texas Finals Results - Thursday, March 24
200-Yard Freestyle Relay - Finals
6. TEXAS - 6th - 1:17.80 - All-America - Tyler O'Halloran (19.94), Austin McAnally (19.28), Daniel DiToro (19.53), Garrett Weber-Gale (19.05)
500-Yard Freestyle - Final
7. Matthew McGinnis - 4:17.42 - All-America
200-yard IM - Finals
16. David Kahn - 1:48.30 - All-America Honorable Mention
50-Yard Freestyle - Finals
8. Garrett Weber-Gale - 19.57 - All-America
