The members of the No. 12 Virginia men's swim and dive team held their heads high as they left the Aquatic and Fitness Center yesterday afternoon despite losing a heartbreaker to the Tennessee Volunteers.
"I am very pleased with the attitude, with the determination and with the performance of our team today," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "We fought and battled from the time the first whistle blew until the last touch took place. It was an outstanding college swim meet -- you do not see them much better than this."
Despite placing first and second in the final event, the 400-yard free relay, the Cavaliers could not overcome a 25-point deficit and fell 156-144 to the Volunteers. Indeed, it was not lost on Tennessee how fiercely Virginia competed to win.
"Virginia is so well-coached and has so much pride in their home pool that we knew we were going to be in for a great competition," Tennessee coach John Trembly said. "We raced hard, Virginia raced hard and I think that everyone is pretty pleased with how everyone performed -- overall it was a great day for both teams."
The Cavaliers came out strong: they not only placed first in the second and third events of the day -- the 1000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle -- but also put up career best times.
Prior to the meet, Bernardino predicted that the 1000-yard freestyle would be one of the most exciting races of the afternoon as Cavalier freshman Taylor Smith and Tennessee freshman Geoff Sanders battled for first place. Both young men had dominated the opposition in the event so far this season with Sanders having posted the fastest time of the two by 11 hundredths of a second.
The event certainly was exciting for the Cavaliers but it was not much of a race; Smith finished a full five seconds before Sanders. His time of 9:11.09 is his fastest competitive swim ever and a full five seconds faster than what he swam just last weekend at Penn State.
Sophomore John Azar also had a lifetime best performance in the 200-yard freestyle, winning the event in 1:38.32.
"I was very pleased, I actually wasn't expecting that at all, the coach threw me in that event at the last minute," Azar said. "I was actually late and had to run over there behind the blocks and there was definitely some adrenaline in that."
Other notable performances included senior Bryan Stahl's 100-yard backstroke (50.24) and sophomore Eric Olesen's 100-yard backstroke (50.50). The 400-yard free relay, comprised of Azar, freshmen Matt McLean and Scot Robison and junior Lee Robertson, also posted a season's best time (3:02.66) by a significant amount.
"When Tennessee won, our guys battled and got a lot of seconds, thirds and fourths to keep the meet close," Bernardino said. "We were hoping that it could come down to the last relay and we weren't quite able to do that. A lot of guys had their best meet of the season and I am pleased. I don't like to lose and they don't like to lose either but the great thing about sports is that there's always the next meet"
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