NCAA SWIMMING : Stanford Men Claim Title for Second Year in a Row

Sophomore Ray Carey gave top-ranked Stanford its only individual victory of the night Saturday, but his team easily won a second consecutive NCAA men’s swimming and diving championship.

Studying a videotape of his morning preliminary paid off, said Carey, who won the 200-yard butterfly in 1 minute 44.01 seconds. The time was more than six-tenths of a second faster than his prelim time.

“I made a couple of changes, went from five kicks to four underwater at the start of the race, tried to take on the rest of the field after the second 50 (yards),” he said.

Stanford, which closed the meet by winning the 400 freestyle relay in 2:53.37, finished with 520.5 points. Michigan was second at 396 and Texas third at 326.

It was the fifth team title for Coach Skip Kenney’s team since 1985.

“You can’t compare championships,” Kenney said. “But this performance was as awesome as you can have at an NCAA championship. Every team has some setbacks and we had some, but our guys jumped back from the setbacks.”

Sacrificing individual performances is a key to the school’s success, team members said.

“I’m out there swimming for my teammates. It’s about getting another national championship--repeating,” said Derek Weatherford, who contributed a second in the 200-yard backstroke to his team’s victory Saturday and also anchored the team’s winning relay effort.

The junior, who won the 100-yard backstroke Friday and also was on the winning Cardinal 400 medley relay team Thursday, had his hopes for a second individual championship ended by Tennessee’s Tripp Schwenk.

Schwenk won in 1:42.06.