DEREKH FROUDE/Arizona Daily Wildcat After mediocre performances at the conference championships, the men's swim and dive team showed its mettle at the NCAA Championships.

Clutch performances vault UA into eighth place at NCAAs

Patience is a virtue; one that head coach Frank Busch and his Wildcat men's swimmers possess.

After a difficult dual meet season that ended with only one victory and a disappointing fifth place finish at the Pac-10 Championships, the Arizona swim team found itself with its lowest ranking of the year (16) as it entered the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.

However, these Wildcats saved their best for last, waiting patiently to take advantage of the national spotlight as they reached their pre-season goal of a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships, coming in at eighth place.

"In the 14 years that I have coached at Arizona, I don't know if a team has performed better than the men did this weekend," head coach Frank Busch said. "The guys took advantage of every opportunity they had."

Auburn became the first team since Stanford in 1998 to win the championship in both men's and women's swimming, as it cruised to victory by more than 200 points. Host and defending champion, the University of Texas finished second, Stanford third, while the University of Southern California and California rounded out the top five.

"Top to bottom, the best two teams in the pool were Auburn and Arizona," said Busch. "The teams that finished ahead of us just had more bullets than we did, but the next few years are going to be awesome when it comes to this team."

Busch's assessment of his team's future seems right on, especially when he can rely on swimmers such as freshman Simon Burnett, who was crowned this past weekend as the NCAA Champion in the 200-yard freestyle.

"To say we were in shock would be an understatement," said Busch on Burnett's championship performance. "It was such a surprise; it was just a great performance. It was one of the greatest individual performances that I have seen."

Junior transfer Luis Rojas set the new University of Arizona record in the 100-yard butterfly, resulting in a second place finish in the event. He broke UA alumnus' Roland Schoeman's record by almost a half second with his time of 46.01 seconds.

Junior Juan Veloz had an impressive championship meet as well, as he broke his own University of Arizona record in finishing second in the 200 yard butterfly.

Veloz was "on fire" according to coach Busch this weekend, and was rewarded for his strong performance as he was named as an All-American.

With the collegiate season now finished for the Arizona swim and dive teams, the look to the future begins, and when it comes to these 'Cats, the future looks very bright.