Nine members of the Virginia men's swim team will travel to the home of the defending NCAA Champion Texas Longhorns this weekend expecting to rope in NCAA titles.
The swimmers qualified for the 2003 NCAA Championships in Austin by excelling in individual or relay events, but the No. 9 Cavaliers have professed that their collective goal for the meet is team success.
"The NCAA meet is a culmination of the team atmosphere," junior Ian Pritchard said. "There is glory to be had for the individual, but having a team score in the top-ten is our primary goal."
Virginia captured this year's team ACC Championship title with outstanding relay swims as well as strong individual performances, a strategy the Cavaliers hope to recreate at the NCAA meet. Two relay teams qualified to compete this weekend for Virginia: the 800-yard freestyle relay team of juniors Luke Anderson and Luke Wagner, freshman Fran Crippen and Pritchard, and the ACC Champion 400-yard freestyle team of Anderson, Wagner and juniors Adam Kerpelman and Jonathan Haag.
"Relays can ignite the spark that allows a team to perform above all expectations and be champions," sophomore Bo Greenwood said. "We expect the team to perform exceptionally, and through the team individuals will prosper."
Many of the individuals making the trip for the Cavaliers have a wealth of experience in conference and national title meets, but with Dan DeMarco as the lone senior in the field for Virginia, the success of the team will depend on the success of its youth.
Crippen will be making his first NCAA appearance, competing in a team-high three events, the 50-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle and the 1650-yard freestyle. Greenwood will be competing in the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard butterfly, a race where he will be joined by fellow sophomore Michael Raab, winner of two consecutive ACC titles in the event.
"In terms of break through swims, I am looking forward most to Mike Raab's 200 fly," Wagner said. "I think he has received little recognition for his performances throughout the year, but he has put himself in position to win an NCAA title."
The competition for Raab and his Virginia teammates is certain to be fierce, as they face the nation's top swimmers in a state-of-the-art Texas facility that has played host to 11 previous national championships and 18 conference championships. This year's meet will be televised on tape delay, first on April 2 at 2 p.m. on ESPN2, and then again April 11 at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.
The overall strength of the Cavalier program will be an asset to the swimmers as they square off against highly ranked opponents like Stanford and Auburn this weekend. Last week, the Virginia women's swim team had a strong showing at their NCAA Championship in Auburn, Ala.
"Many of the girls swam really well at their meet, and that gets all the guys pretty pumped up," Pritchard said.
The male swimmers also will feed off their own success at the ACC Championship meet, where they won their fifth consecutive conference crown. Yet despite the magnitude of this accomplishment, the Cavaliers refuse to let themselves be merely content.
"We look at ACCs as a stepping stone to NCAAs," Wagner said. Coach Mark Bernandino "always makes sure we keep any success we have in perspective by reminding us we have bigger fish to fry."
The Cavaliers will fire up the grill this weekend in Texas, but in order to cook their competitors, they must come hungry.
"We have put in the work in and out of the water," Greenwood said. "Now it takes something else, some sort of edge, to be part of the nation's elite.That is pride, desire, hunger, determination and intense focus."
These intangibles have already carried Virginiato a conference title, but the swimmers remain untested on a national level. This weekend will prove whether the combination of team and individual successes can bring Virginia taste of NCAA victory.
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