March 25, 2006
1650 FREESTYLE
Georgia’s Sebastien Rouault (Champion) – 14:29.43 (GTAC Pool Record)
“I think it was the perfect race, there are things I can improve. I came here to win this race, and I tried to swim it the same way I’ve trained. I’m really happy.”
On being the first UGA swimmer to win the mile
“I’m very proud. It’s a great program. I’m really happy for my coach, Harvey Humphrey and Jack Bauerle because they do everything for us.”
Michigan’s Peter Vanderkaay (Runner-up)
“It felt good, I just wanted to go out and get a jump on the field, Sebastien got out faster than I did. I was waiting for him to fade a little bit, but he had a great race, so I tip my hat to him.”
“It was a best time for me so I was happy with the swim.”
200 BACKSTROKE
Florida’s Ryan Lochte (Champion) – 1:37.68 (American Record)
On breaking the American Record in all his events
“It feels great. I had my family, my team, everyone supporting me. It’s the third day, everyone is tired, but you have to go out there and step up and swim your heart out.”
On the race
“Go out there, go out fast, hold on for dear life and bring it in as fast as I could.”
Stanford’s Hongzhe Sun (Runner-up)
“It was great, best time. I wasn’t under 1:40, but still best time. It felt great. I had to give it everything I had, leaving everything in the pool, so I gave it all I had.”
100 FREESTYLE
Texas’ Garrett Weber-Gale (Champion) – 42.11 (GTAC Pool Record)
“It was great. I wish I could’ve seen the clock. It was nice to be in the outside lane, which would have not been my first choice, but it was great to go out there and win. I couldn’t even tell if I won or not, I had to ask the timer what happened because my contacts fell out and I couldn’t see the board.”
On standing on the blocks before the race
“I was thinking that those guys in the other lanes are really good and I just have to beat them and thankfully I did.”
On not being able to see
“It’s better to not be able to see anything because our coach Ed Reese always says, ‘Looking back you are bound to get caught.'”
Stanford’s Ben Wildman-Tobriner (Runner-up)
“I’m happy with it. I thought I could go out there and win, but I just got touched out. But by a friend of mine, so you know, I couldn’t be happier.”
200 BREASTSTROKE
California’s Henrique Barbosa (Champion) – 1:53.97 (GTAC Pool Record)
“I couldn’t ask for more, my senior year, breaking every school record, winning both back to back breaststrokes, unbelievable. I mean, a dream come true. I couldn’t ask for more. I felt great. I was looking at Vlad in Lane 4 all the time and I knew I had so much gas left that I just pull all out on the last 25, it was mine. So I just went for it.”
Alabama’s Vlad Polyakov (Runner-up)
“I was a little disappointed. I thought I could go a little faster than this and maybe win it again, to repeat, but that’s alright. I didn’t know it was neck and neck, I really didn’t. I didn’t look to that side. I thought I could pull it off, but too bad.”
200 BUTTERFLY
Michigan’s Davis Tarwater (Champion) – 1:41.84 (GTAC Pool Record)
“I’m very happy. I wasn’t expecting to go that fast. I’ve known Davis for a while, and I’ve never really gotten to race him. That was a lot of fun. I wasn’t paying attention to anyone else but Davis, because I was right next to him and I knew I was going fast. I just tried to go as fast as I could and keep up with him and he touched me out.”
Georgia’s Gil Stovall (Runner-up)
“It feels good to defend my title. Obviously I wanted to break the American record and I was just right off of it, but defending my title I can’t complain.”
PLATFORM DIVING
Auburn’s Steven Segerlin, (Champion)
“I have been struggling lately in keeping it together in finals in platform, so I’m just really happy that just did a good job of following my coach’s instructions. I flew by the seat of my pants, and what a ride. It feels awesome coming from a really long line of NCAA champions at Auburn. It feels really good to live up to my potential and follow the guys who came before me. Knowing that it was already in the bag [the team title], took a lot of pressure off of me. On that last dive, I felt like I was standing up there forever. All I could see was the camera guy’s red light. I was like oh, please, look at the water when you come out.”
Georgia’s Chris Colwill, Runner-up:
“That actually was my personal best, and I’m glad for Steven. He did really great. I couldn’t ask for much more than that.” On his experience: “It was overwhelming. The crowd has been great. I couldn’t ask for a better NCAAs. Winning 1-meter and 3-meter, you couldn’t top that.”
400 FREESTYLE RELAY:
University of Arizona, champions in the men’s 400 freestyle relay:
Adam Ritter:
“I can’t say any of us felt any huge amount of pressure. We all knew that it was going to be close coming into the meet. We just went in and raced our best. I don’t think the pressure affected us in any negative manner.”
Simon Burnett:
“I was nervous. My individual event wasn’t great. It wasn’t perfect. I just wanted to get these guys off to a good start. I really wanted to go 1:41. It wasn’t to be today.”
Ritter:
“I had two seniors on that relay. I wanted to win it for them. I wanted to win it for pride, and I am just really happy that we ended the meet on this note.”
Lyndon Ferns:
“Tired. It is great to end the meet like that. We lost the meet today, but we only had nine guys and we wanted to fight hard to the end, and that’s exactly what we did today. I just wanted to get home into the wall as fast as I could so I could send the rest of the boys off. I think by the time I came down, I knew we were going to win the relay.”
Albert Subirats:
“I just wanted to get to the wall for pride, for the seniors and the coaching staff. They deserve this. Two great seniors. This whole class is amazing. They deserve this award.”
Second place Auburn’s Matt Targett:
“It was a good race. Unfortunate we couldn’t get out on top. Hats off to Arizona, giving us good competition.” On being the team champion: “It is fantastic. It’s my first year at Auburn, and I am proud to be a part of the tradition.
TEAM TITLE: David Marsh, Auburn Head Coach on the team win:
“Today it feels really good, like a relief. It is such an intense meet from top to bottom coming off last week and jumping into the fire this week. The first thing I’ve got to say is hats off to Mike, Coach of the Year, and a great team performance by Arizona and the rest of the field. Our guys have improved throughout the season, and they continued to improve in this meet. I’m pleased that that improvement has manifested itself into a win. They deserve this. It’s an honor; it’s really more of a blessing from God to win this team title for me, personally. I know the guys will enjoy it and embrace it fully.”
Frank Busch of Arizona on his team’s runner-up finish:
“I am very proud of them. This is a special group of men. This has been an incredible ride these last three days and I am thrilled to death of how they’ve done.”
On their Saturday performance:
“The kids swam great. They swam really hard this morning to get us to that spot where we could have the final swims that we had. Auburn just had more bullets.”
To win the last relay was very sweet. That was four out of five relays we won here, seven out of 10 with the women last week. And we were second in all the others.”
On his seniors:
“This is a special group. We’re gonna miss them.”
