March 23, MINNEAPOLIS. Auburn University showed it came to the men's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships with every intention of defending its NCAA title, despite the fact that Texas has been ranked number one all season long.
In the very first event–the 200m freestyle relay–the Tigers obliterated the world best time of 1;26.99 set by The Netherlands National Team at the 1998 European Short Course Championships, held in Sheffield, England.
The Auburn team of Matt busbee (21.64), Aaron Ciarla 920.92), Oswaldo Quevedo (21.25) and Greg Busse (21.02) clocked 1:24.83. Also under the old mark were California (1:26.52); Texas, whose 1:26.78 is an American record; and Arizona (1:26.86). Texas's time is an American mark because the first two teams had foreign swimmers.
Rounding out the top eight: Stanford, Hawaii, Minnesota and Florida.
