Men's 400-Freestyle Relay Wins 2010 UAA Championship

RESULTS

Atlanta, Ga., February 20, 2010 - The Washington University in St. Louis men’s swimming and diving team finished in fourth place and the women’s team came in sixth place as the 2010 University Athletic Association (UAA) Swimming and Diving Championships came to a close on Saturday, Feb. 20, in Atlanta, Ga.

The men finished with a team score of 1011.5 while the women tallied 782 points. Meet host Emory University swept both the men’s and women’s team championships.

In the final event of the day, the men’s 400-freestyle relay team swam to a first-place finish to capture the second UAA Championship of the meet for the Bears. The foursome of freshman Mark Minowitz, senior Dan Arteaga, junior Kartik Anjur and junior David Chao posted an NCAA provisional time of 6:05.05, leading Washington U. to a repeat as conference champions in the event.

Washington U. also had a pair of individual runner-up finishes on Saturday night, one the result of an NCAA automatic qualifying performance. Senior Jessie Lodewyk placed second in the 1,650-yard freestyle, but in doing so automatically qualified to compete at the 2010 NCAA Division III Championships with a time of 17:12.67. Chao was the runner-up in the 100-yard freestyle, earning All-UAA honors with a NCAA’B’ cut finish of 46.09.

The two teams combined to post five more provisional NCAA times. On the men’s side, sophomore Chris Valach placed fourth in the 1,650-freestyle (16:06.89), junior Michael Flanagan came in fourth in the 200-yard butterfly, but swam his fastest time of the day in the preliminaries (1:53.30) and senior Dima Galkin placed seventh in the 200-yard breaststroke, with his top time of the day coming in the preliminaries (2:06.60).

In women’s action, junior Karin Underwood posted a provisional time of 2:05.87 in a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke, and sophomore Karina Stridh narrowly missed out on all-UAA honors in the 100-yard freestyle, placing fourth with a ‘B’ cut time of 52.79.

In the men’s one-meter diving competition, sophomore Michael Rao was one place away from all-UAA recognition, totaling a personal-best score of 402.65.