Day 2: 1998 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

The home team from Auburn won the opening event in NCAA record time, but Stanford widened its lead in the team standings after the second night of competition at the 75th Annual NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in Auburn, Alabama. The Cardinal has 411 points, followed by Auburn with 308.5 and Texas with 274.5. Tennessee (178) and Southern California (175) are in fourth and fifth places with one day to go.

The Tiger quartet of backstroker Michael Bartz, breaststroker Adam Jerger, butterflyer Brett Hawke and freestyler Aaron Ciarla powered its way to a 1:25.24 clocking, eclipsing the 1:25.40 mark recorded by Auburn in 1997. Because Hawke is from Australia, the Tigers were unable to claim an American record.

Quick splits in the event were recorded by Texas' Neil Walker in the backstroke (21.56), Auburn's Adam Jerger in the breaststroke (23.57), Stanford's Sabir Muhammad in the butterfly (19.74) and Stanford's Scott Claypool in the freestyle (18.83).

Stanford's Tom Wilkens leveraged a strong breaststroke leg to defend his 400 IM title over freshman teammate Steven Brown, 3:43.96 to 3:46.52. It was Wilkens' second individual medley win of the meet.

SMU's butterfly sensation Lars Frolander won his third 100 fly title in 45.59, breaking his own NCAA record from the preliminaries (45.65) which broke his NCAA record (46.18) from 1995. The senior from Borlange, Sweden, beat Stanford's Sabir Muhammad who finished in 46.18. Although Muhammad's time was faster than Stanford assistant coach Pablo Morales' American record (46.26), it will not count as a new domestic mark. Since January, the rules have been changed to limit underwater swimming in the butterfly to 15 meters; Muhammad's start and turn exceeded this threshold.

Press release from www.auburn.edu/athletics/ncaaswim

Link To Official Results!!!

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