March 25, 2006
200 MEDLEY RELAY
Arizona – Albert Subirats, Dave Rollins, Lyndon Ferns, Simon Burnett (Champion)- 1:23.88 (NCAA and US Open Record) Albert Subirats
“I’m pretty excited, glad for my teammates. Three seniors, three great seniors and now a championship, and we broke the record so we feel really good.”
Auburn – Doug Van Wie, James Wike, Alexei Puninski, Matt Targett (Runner-up) Matt Targett
“Of course the goal is always to win, but hats off to Arizona. They had a great swim. And we do our best.”
Doug Van Wie
“We could’ve done a little better. We’ll take second place.”
400 IM
Florida’s Ryan Lochte (Champion) – 3:38.15 (NCAA Record)
On breaking the NCAA Record and winning another national title
“It feels good, the 400 IM is probably the hardest race for this kind of meet and to come up on top feels pretty good.”
On your strategy
“Just go out fast and hold on for dear life. My whole family is here and I just wanted to make them proud.”
Southern Cal’s Ous Mellouili (Runner-up)
“It felt pretty good, I think it’s a best time for me. I got second place, and I’m pretty happy with it.”
100 BUTTERFLY
Arizona’s Lyndon Ferns (Champion) – 45.89 (GTAC Pool Record)
On Arizona’s first and second finish on the 100 fly
“Just to train with Albert (second place) every day, he is such a nice guy and a great swimmer. That’s the future of Arizona. We mean business. We’ve got nine guys. We want to win the championships and we showed it tonight.”
On his swim
“That was awesome. Horrible walls, not as fast as I wanted to go. Nevertheless, it was a win.”
Arizona’s Albert Subirats (Runner-up)
“There were some great swimmers out there and to get beat by my own teammate is great.”
On Arizona taking first and second in the event
“It’s pretty exciting and I’m happy for the team. I felt tired coming down the final stretch but I finished strong, thank God.”
200 FREESTYLE
Arizona’s Simon Burnett (Champion) – 1:31.20 (NCAA Record and US Open Record)
“You know, I’ve always come to NCAAs and swam slower than I have in season, so it was really satisfying to come here and improve my time.”
Michigan’s Peter Vanderkaay (Runner-up)
On his race tonight
“It was a good time for me, a best time and I’ll take it. I swam the race I wanted to, Simon [Burnett-Arizona] had a great race.”
Talk about the final 25 yards
“I was tired, but I fought through it to get to the wall.”
100 BREASTSTROKE
California’s Henrique Barbosa (Champion) – 52.52 (GTAC Pool Record)
“It was pretty good, I mean, there’s no words for that, unbelievable.”
Indiana’s Kevin Swander (Runner-up)
“It’s great to be here, but it doesn’t feel that good to get second by two-one-hundredths [of a second]. But then again it’s all put in perspective because I’m here and I’m racing.”
On the last 25 yards and being neck-and-neck with Barbosa
“I didn’t know I was just thinking get there.”
100 BACKSTROKE
Northwestern’s Matt Grevers (Champion) – 45.93
On his race today
“It wasn’t pretty, but I got it done I guess. I’ve been going faster times, especially at the beginning of the meet, so I thought I would go a little faster, but that really doesn’t matter, because I got the win and that’s what I really wanted.”
On Van Wie being right there
“I saw him on the turn and I thought, Oh God. I was hoping that my arms were long enough to out touch him.”
Auburn’s Doug Van Wie (Runner-up)
“It was pretty good. I wanted to take it out fast so I could be in the race at the end. And that last lap was definitely a little painful.”
3-METER DIVING
Georgia’s Chris Colwill (Champion) – 460.95
On being the first winner on both springboards in UGA history
“It’s an honor, I’m ecstatic. I was a little bit nervous going into my last dive, but I knew I had to land on my head.”
Arizona State’s Joona Puhakka (Runner-up)
“I really didn’t want to end my career with a silver, I wanted to win, but Chris was awesome and there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn’t in good enough shape for him, he rocked this place.”
800 FREESTYLE RELAY
Arizona – Simon Burnett, Lyndon Ferns, Tyler Deberrey, Adam Ritter (Champion) – 6:16.67 (GTAC Pool Record) Lyndon Ferns
“It was good, we won so what more can you say. We wanted to win it, we would’ve liked to break the record, but that didn’t happen tonight.”
Michigan – Peter Vanderkaay, Chris Dejong, Alex Vanderkaay, Davis Tarwater (Runner-up)
Chris Dejung
“We’re happy the way we performed at a big pressure meet like this, obviously we would’ve liked to have won, but we’re happy to be here representing Michigan.”
ARIZONA HEAD COACH FRANK BUSCH
On the close margin of the score
“First the girls, this is pretty incredible. We’ve just never had anything like this. These guys, they really believe. They’re just going to keep fighting ’til the end.”
On Simon Burnett’s 1:31.20 in the 200 free
“I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life. I don’t even know how to explain that. That was a guy, very talented, whose heart wanted that, and he was willing to give whatever it took for that race. You just don’t see races like that.”
Did everything meet his expectations tonight
“Yes. We were just on fire.”
For tomorrow
“We just gotta keep fighting. We’ve got nine swimmers here. I hope their backs are real strong ’cause we’ve got to carry a little bit more here.” “
AUBURN HEAD COACH DAVID MARSH
“The goal tomorrow will be to come in and get at least five, six, hopefully seven swimmers into the finals. If we do that, we’ll be in good shape. But what’s fun about this is that the teams hang out, it turns into a little bit of a dual meet, and the 100 freestyle will be a showdown of the dual meet. They’ve (Arizona) got two that are fabulous and three other guys that are very good, and we have some very good 100 freestylers too. You know who can push their people into the top eight will be the challenge.”
