Shevchik Swims For All-America Honors at NCAAs

Led by freshman Dan Shevchik--the newest Crimson All-American--the Harvard men's swimming team placed a respectable 26th at the NCAA Championships at Minneapolis during the first weekend of spring break. The NCAAs concluded a superb season for the five-time defending Eastern champions.

The meet also marked the conclusion of senior Tim Martin's spectacular collegiate career.

Shevchik's eighth-place finish in the 200 backstroke and 12th-place finish in the 400 individual medley were the top performances out of the four Crimson swimmers at the meet. Shevchik had won both events at the Eastern championships convincingly three weeks before.

His time of 1:56.33 in the 200 backstroke preliminaries was just enough to earn him one of the eight spots in the finals. Shevchik finished less than three-tenths of a second ahead of the ninth-place qualifier.

Although his preliminary time was within a second of top qualifier Matt Cole of Florida, Shevchik was unable to catch up in the final heat. Cole won the event with a time of 1:53.68, while Shevchik finished eighth with a time of 1:57.18.

"[In the final] I didn't feel as good as I did in the morning," Shevchik said. "I was a little disappointed with the 200 back. I had expected to contend for first."

Shevchik was a bronze medalist in the 200 backstroke at the 2000 Pan American Games.

"Overall, considering depth, this was the fastest meet I've ever been involved with," Shevchik said.

In the 400 medley, Shevchik qualified for the consolation heat with an 11th-place finish. His time of 4:15.60 was 1.5 seconds short of qualifying him for the final.

Shevchik's time of 4:17.38 in the consolation heat earned him a 12th-place finish overall. Michigan's Tim Siciliano won the event with a time of 4:06.02 that crushed the previous American record by more than five seconds.

Shevchik earned most of the Crimson's 20 points for the meet. His performance kept up Harvard's string of strong showings at the NCAAs. The Crimson finished 24th in 1999 and 11th in 1998.

Martin, who is also a Crimson editor, would have preferred to have ended his college career with a stronger performance.

In each of the past two years, Martin had finished fifth in the 1650 freestyle. Last year, his time of 14:58.38 broke the school record of Olympic silver-medalist Bobby Hackett '79. Martin also finished 12th in the 500 freestyle his sophomore year and 11th his junior year.

This year, the NCAA changed its distance format from the usual 1650 and 500 freestyles to the 1500 and the 400, matching the distances the Olympics will use this summer in Sydney.

Martin's time of 15:21.55 in the 1500 placed him 22nd, well below his top finish in the 1650. Martin wasn't even the top Crimson finisher in the 1500, as freshman Andrew McConnell slipped ahead of him with a time of 15:19.27, good for a 19th-place finish.

The 1500 was won by USC freshman Erik Vendt with an American record time of 14:31.02. He upset Arizona's Ryk Neethling, the three-time defending 1650 champion.

In the 400, Martin finished 20th with a time of 3:49.94, about a second short of what he needed to make the consolation heat.

Sophomore Ben Hanley was the remaining Crimson swimmer to qualify for the NCAAs. He competed in the 1500 and the 400 along with Martin and McConnell.

The four Crimson swimmers also made up the 200 and 800 freestyle relay teams, the first Harvard relay teams in the NCAAs since 1998, when Harvard's 800 team placed 3rd in the country.

The Crimson finished 16th in the 200 relay with a time of 1:38.30. Auburn won the event after posting a world record time of 1:24.83 in the preliminaries.

Harvard's time in the 800 free relay was 7:24.86, also good enough for a 16th-place finish.

Despite his less-than-stellar performance at the NCAAs, Martin will still graduate from Harvard with four team Eastern championships, eight individual Eastern championships, and three All-American accolades. He will leave Harvard as the fastest freestyler in school history.

This past weekend, Martin bounced back from his disappointing NCAA performance with a fifth-place finish in the 1500 free at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Federal Way, Wash.

Though the collegiate swim season has come to a close, the Olympics are not far away. Ten Crimson swimmers have qualified for the Olympic Trials. For them, the hard work and competition will continue throughout the summer.