University of Minnesota Athletics
NCAA Men's Championships Day 2 Event Winner quotes
3/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Alex Vanderkaay, 400 IM Champion, Michigan
On the win:
“It feels great; I’m still a little shocked. I didn’t think I would get that time. I am just truly honored.”
On representing the Wolverines:
“Michigan has a great history and I am just honored to join by having a national title.”
On the team’s performance:
“We are doing great. No one expected us with our lower ranking, yet we are ninth right now (in the team competition) and tomorrow is one of our best days, so we are hopefully turning some heads.
Alexei Puninski, member of 200 Medley Relay Champions, Auburn
On the title:
“It is really great and we did the best job we can do. Everybody was really tired because we had a lot of events before this race, but we were excited. We really believed in ourselves and we have been thinking about this record in the beginning of the year. We knew we could do it and we finally did it. Everybody’s happy and we want to say thanks to our coaches because they did a really good job. We are looking forward to doing more races tomorrow.”
On Auburn’s dominance of the 200 Medley:
“We really have good guys on relays. Cesar (Cielo), Scott Goodrich, me and we just combined the best performances right now and did a really good job. There were a lot of mistakes and a lot of disqualifications, but we came out on top and all that matters is that we were first.”
Darian Townsend, 200 Freestyle Champion, Arizona
On the win:
“It’s a bit of a relief. I had a down year during my sophomore year and transferred colleges; it just got better and better and it feels good to get one under my belt.”
On Arizona’s dominance in the 200 Free (4 swimmers in the final):
“That’s sets us up for our relay and after this morning it seems we have set ourselves up nicely for tonight. That is just a testament to the good Arizona swimming program.”
Mike Alexandrov, 100 Breaststroke Champion, Northwestern
On breaking Jeremy Linn’s NCAA record:
“I have been dreaming about it. Around January, after our training trip it started to become realistic. I was going real fast in practice and in dual meets and one day when I was training with my breaststroke squad, I said that I was going to take the record. Ever since then I had my eyes laid on it.”
On the mentality of the swim:
“I have swum it so many times in my head that when I got in the race its like a reaction. It like when you wake up, you open your eyes. When you get in the water and the next thing you know you’re done; you don’t have time to think.”
Albert Subirats, 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke Champion, Arizona
On breaking the 100 Fly record:
“Definitely a big goal for me. I didn’t know it was going to happen; Ian Crocker is the best flyer there has been so far. I just really wanted to go 44 in the fly for the first time ever and I am glad I did.”
On defending teammate’s Lyndon Ferns win in 100 Fly:
“Lyndon is a great friend and I have a lot of love for him and he is an incredible teammate who taught me a lot. This is for him, my teammates and my coaches.”
On the 100 Back win:
“I just try to feed off of the energy of the team and the coaches. It was an amazing race and everything about it went the way I wanted it to. I am very happy about it.
On being only second man to double-up in NCAAs:
“It’s incredible and a great experience and hopefully I will be able to repeat it next year.”
Steven Segerlin, 3-Meter Diving Champion, Auburn
On thoughts going into final dive:
“Try to keep myself calm and composed. Sometimes you can get a little excited before a dive. I was just trying to keep it steady. My focus was staying strong, staying long and staying cool.”
On combination of swimming and diving championships:
“I think its huge for everyone to know that it is swimming and diving. There are 9.9 scholarships and you can spend them any way you want and at Auburn we choose to invest a lot in diving. In diving we give a lot back to the swimmers, not just in points, but also in training and in practice. We lift with them and we run with them, so it is definitely a combined sport.”
Darian Townsend, Adam Ritter, Members of 800 Freestyle Relay Champions, Arizona
Townsend on breaking the NCAA record:
“I used to hold that record with Florida and when we broke that record my freshman year is was amazing and my first NCAA title. To go to another school with have other teammates and do it again, I just don’t think that’s ever been done before.”
Ritter on turning around after the DQs in the 200 Medley Relay:
“You have to stay level headed thought each swim no matter if someone just bombed a race or just set an NCAA record. You just can’t get too high or too low because there are so many races at this meet. It’s just an example of something bad happened and there is nothing we can do about it. Coach teaches us don’t waste your energy on things you cannot control and that was just one of those incenses.”
Auburn Head Coach David Marsh
On the morning session:
“The morning session was the best session of my career. We had 15 swims and 15 best lifetime swims and as a coach you can’t ask for better than that. You can control coming to the meet looking for personal best, but you can’t control how the other teams will do. To go 15-to-15, especially in this meet which is amazing, was truly amazing for us.”
On Auburn’s large point lead:
“When I am in a box I will count numbers, but right now we are just trying to be the best team we can be each season. Today, I am just caught up in this wave that the team has created this morning by doing so well. A guy like Dave Maras who was on the brink of quitting last year; he was just at his ends because he lost his house in the New Orleans floods and for him to come back this year and be a true leader on this team and give us the best breaststroke split of the meet. Stories like that add up and make it a lot more satisfying than any count of victories that I could ever have.”
On the win:
“It feels great; I’m still a little shocked. I didn’t think I would get that time. I am just truly honored.”
On representing the Wolverines:
“Michigan has a great history and I am just honored to join by having a national title.”
On the team’s performance:
“We are doing great. No one expected us with our lower ranking, yet we are ninth right now (in the team competition) and tomorrow is one of our best days, so we are hopefully turning some heads.
Alexei Puninski, member of 200 Medley Relay Champions, Auburn
On the title:
“It is really great and we did the best job we can do. Everybody was really tired because we had a lot of events before this race, but we were excited. We really believed in ourselves and we have been thinking about this record in the beginning of the year. We knew we could do it and we finally did it. Everybody’s happy and we want to say thanks to our coaches because they did a really good job. We are looking forward to doing more races tomorrow.”
On Auburn’s dominance of the 200 Medley:
“We really have good guys on relays. Cesar (Cielo), Scott Goodrich, me and we just combined the best performances right now and did a really good job. There were a lot of mistakes and a lot of disqualifications, but we came out on top and all that matters is that we were first.”
Darian Townsend, 200 Freestyle Champion, Arizona
On the win:
“It’s a bit of a relief. I had a down year during my sophomore year and transferred colleges; it just got better and better and it feels good to get one under my belt.”
On Arizona’s dominance in the 200 Free (4 swimmers in the final):
“That’s sets us up for our relay and after this morning it seems we have set ourselves up nicely for tonight. That is just a testament to the good Arizona swimming program.”
Mike Alexandrov, 100 Breaststroke Champion, Northwestern
On breaking Jeremy Linn’s NCAA record:
“I have been dreaming about it. Around January, after our training trip it started to become realistic. I was going real fast in practice and in dual meets and one day when I was training with my breaststroke squad, I said that I was going to take the record. Ever since then I had my eyes laid on it.”
On the mentality of the swim:
“I have swum it so many times in my head that when I got in the race its like a reaction. It like when you wake up, you open your eyes. When you get in the water and the next thing you know you’re done; you don’t have time to think.”
Albert Subirats, 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke Champion, Arizona
On breaking the 100 Fly record:
“Definitely a big goal for me. I didn’t know it was going to happen; Ian Crocker is the best flyer there has been so far. I just really wanted to go 44 in the fly for the first time ever and I am glad I did.”
On defending teammate’s Lyndon Ferns win in 100 Fly:
“Lyndon is a great friend and I have a lot of love for him and he is an incredible teammate who taught me a lot. This is for him, my teammates and my coaches.”
On the 100 Back win:
“I just try to feed off of the energy of the team and the coaches. It was an amazing race and everything about it went the way I wanted it to. I am very happy about it.
On being only second man to double-up in NCAAs:
“It’s incredible and a great experience and hopefully I will be able to repeat it next year.”
Steven Segerlin, 3-Meter Diving Champion, Auburn
On thoughts going into final dive:
“Try to keep myself calm and composed. Sometimes you can get a little excited before a dive. I was just trying to keep it steady. My focus was staying strong, staying long and staying cool.”
On combination of swimming and diving championships:
“I think its huge for everyone to know that it is swimming and diving. There are 9.9 scholarships and you can spend them any way you want and at Auburn we choose to invest a lot in diving. In diving we give a lot back to the swimmers, not just in points, but also in training and in practice. We lift with them and we run with them, so it is definitely a combined sport.”
Darian Townsend, Adam Ritter, Members of 800 Freestyle Relay Champions, Arizona
Townsend on breaking the NCAA record:
“I used to hold that record with Florida and when we broke that record my freshman year is was amazing and my first NCAA title. To go to another school with have other teammates and do it again, I just don’t think that’s ever been done before.”
Ritter on turning around after the DQs in the 200 Medley Relay:
“You have to stay level headed thought each swim no matter if someone just bombed a race or just set an NCAA record. You just can’t get too high or too low because there are so many races at this meet. It’s just an example of something bad happened and there is nothing we can do about it. Coach teaches us don’t waste your energy on things you cannot control and that was just one of those incenses.”
Auburn Head Coach David Marsh
On the morning session:
“The morning session was the best session of my career. We had 15 swims and 15 best lifetime swims and as a coach you can’t ask for better than that. You can control coming to the meet looking for personal best, but you can’t control how the other teams will do. To go 15-to-15, especially in this meet which is amazing, was truly amazing for us.”
On Auburn’s large point lead:
“When I am in a box I will count numbers, but right now we are just trying to be the best team we can be each season. Today, I am just caught up in this wave that the team has created this morning by doing so well. A guy like Dave Maras who was on the brink of quitting last year; he was just at his ends because he lost his house in the New Orleans floods and for him to come back this year and be a true leader on this team and give us the best breaststroke split of the meet. Stories like that add up and make it a lot more satisfying than any count of victories that I could ever have.”
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