March 25, 2006
ATLANTA – The Auburn Tigers saved their best swim for its last, having 13 swimmers in the finals to overcome Arizona’s hot Friday night to win its fourth consecutive national championship, scoring a total 480.5 points, in front of a sell out crowd in the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center at the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday.
Arizona finished second (440.5), Stanford third (362.5), Texas fourth (307) and Florida fifth (268.5) to round the top five.
Georgia’s Sebastien Rouault surprised everyone in the opening event with a personal-record time of 14:29.43 in the 1650-yard freestyle to edge Michigan’s Peter Vanderkaay who finished with a PR time of 14:33.76.
Florida’s Ryan Lochte set a third American Record at the meet with a time of 1:37.68 to win his third national title at the national championships.
With three people in the 100 free for the Tigers, Texas’ Garrett Weber-Gale touched the wall in 42.11 to win his first national title in the event. The Tigers’ Cesar Cielo finished fourth and Matt Targett finished seventh with times of 42.58 and 42.89, respectively.
California’s Henrique Barbosa won the 200 breaststroke with a pool record time of 1:53.97 to sweep the breaststroke events for the Bears.
In the 200 butterfly, Michigan’s Davis Tarwater touched the wall in 1:41.84 to claim his first national championship of the meet.
Auburn’s Steven Segerlin won his first national championship on the platform with a final score of 469.30 to secure the Tigers fourth national title.
In the final relay, the Wildcats’ 400 free relay team of Simon Burnett, Lyndon Ferns, Albert Subirats and Adam Ritter finished first with a time of 2:48.39.
