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Men's swimming and diving season was filled with greatness

The UA men's swimming and diving team entered this past season with one thing on their mind - wining a national championship.

With their largest senior class in school history, the men were very optimist about the success this team could achieve.

"This is the tightest group of seniors in my three years here," junior Jay Schryver said. "A lot of the senior leadership rubbed off on the underclassmen."

With 18 letter winners and 12 All-Americans returning, the men's team was considered one of the premier teams in the nation, having one of the best shots at upsetting the top ranked Texas Longhorns at the NCAA's Championships.

Most UA men qualified for the NCAA Championships before the Pacific 10 Conference Championships, which meant they were unshaven for the conference championship, which slowed their times, garnering a disappointing fourth place finish.

Everything changed though as the NCAA Championships neared.

At the beginning of the season, the men's main goal was to finish higher than fourth place at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish an Arizona men's swimming and diving team had ever had was fourth place back in 1993.

At the time of the national championships, the Wildcats were ranked fourth in the country and were mentally and physically ready to make a serious championship run.

The quest for a championship came up short, though, as they finished third behind the defending champion Auburn Tigers, and the top ranked Texas Longhorns.

"We had a great season," senior Nat Lewis said. "We had one goal at the beginning of the season and that was to place higher than fourth and we accomplished it."

Finishing in third place at the NCAA National Championships was a huge accomplishment, considering it was the fastest meet swam this year in the world.

The UA men swam extremely fast as a team and also had a lot of outstanding individual performances.

Aside from the swimmers, the UA men's diving also flourished this season as junior Arno Bergstrom and sophomore Ruben Vaca both participated in the NCAA Championships.

The Wildcats were led individually by senior Ryk Neethling, who won two titles in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. With his two victories, Neethling increased his championship title to nine, the most individual NCAA National Championship titles in the 103 year history of UA collegian athletics.

Neethling, who was attempting to become the third collegian athlete to win 10 or more titles was upset in the 1500m, though. The loss was the biggest upset in the championships as Neethling was the clear cut favorite to win the race.

Neethling will be sorely missed as his leadership and talent were a model to his fellow teammates.

"He was a great team captain," Lewis said. "He showed us how to swim tough each and everyday."

Sophomore Roland Schoeman, also swam at world record speed in the 50-meter freestyle at nationals, but it was only good enough for second place as California freshman Anthony Ervin won the race and set a new world record.

"There is fresh blood in the sprint world and Roland is a major part of it," assistant coach Rick DeMont said.

This rivalry between Ervin and Schoeman is just beginning as they will be competing against one another in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

"These two are too young to be this fast," DeMont said. "The swimming world has been waiting for this for a long time."

Besides finishing third in the nation, this year's men's team also defeated Stanford in a dual meet for the first time in the program's history.

"This year was definitely a success as we accomplished two things that we have never done before," Schryver said. "We beat Stanford for the first time ever and we finished higher than any other team in school history."