The victory was the 20th straight dual meet win for Coach David Marsh’s Auburn team. It’s last loss was to Texas in Austin back in 2001.
“The depth was what I was looking for and the guys stepped up,” Marsh said. “NCAA Championships is not about the front-line guys, it is about the whole team. Eric Shanteau has been working hard in his training and it is paying off for him. B.J. Jones is showing what he can do while Doug Van Wie, who is one of the hardest workers, is also beginning to see big dividends."
Jones scored first-place points twice for the Tigers as the junior clocked a 9:16.33 in the 1000-meter freestyle, just ahead of teammates Nate Knopf (9:22.87) and Daniel Slocki (9:25.79), giving the Tigers a 1-2-3 sweep. The LaGrange, Ga., native then was the first to the wall in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:23.33.
The 400 individual medley was all Auburn as Shanteau (3:49.89), Mark Gangloff (3:55.77), Van Wie (3:58.99) and Jeremy Knowles (3:59.31) finished in the top four spots.
The Tigers also took three of the top four spots in the 200 butterfly as Knowles won in a time of 1:48.41 while Kurt Cady was third (1:50.04) and Lyle Babcock was fourth (1:50.16). Mark Johnson was fifth with a time of 1:50.59.
George Bovell and Joey Schneider combined to go 1-3 in the 200 freestyle as Bovell clocked a 1:36.69 and Schneider a 1:39.69. Byran Lundquist was fifth with a time of 1:41.10.
Texas won the 50 freestyle, but the depth of Auburn showed as 2003 NCAA Champion Fred Bousquet was second with a 20.48 and Derek Gibb was third with a 20.69.
Texas took the first race with a little more than a half-second victory in the 400 medley relay, clocking a 3:14.41 to AU’s 3:15.12, which was comprised of Bryce Hunt, Mark Gangloff, Fred Bousquet and Ryan Wochomurka.
Auburn took the final event, the 400 freestyle relay, with Cady, Bovell, Jones and Gibb swimming a time of 2:59.54.
Though the diving was contested during Friday’s exhibition meet, the AU quartet provided the Tigers with plenty of points and gave the AU coaches a good reason to look for good things out of Jeff Shaffer’s group come SEC and NCAA time.
Auburn returns to the pool on Friday with a 3 p.m. short course-meters dual meet with Tennessee.
The Tigers will then join the No. 1 ranked Auburn women’s team to swim a long course-meters meet vs. Southern Cal on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. each day. Joining the Tigers and the Trojans will be North Baltimore Aquatic.