University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Men's NCAA Championships
Stevens Takes Silver in 100 Breaststroke
March 25, 2016 | Swimming & Diving
ATLANTA -- Sophomore Peter John Stevens scored a silver medal finish in the 100-yard breaststroke to lead Tennessee on Friday at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at McAuley Aquatic Center.
With one day left in the meet, Tennessee moved up one spot to sixth in the standings with 152 points. The Vols will be in the hunt for their first top-10 finish at the NCAA meet since 2009.
Stevens was bidding to join former Olympian Jeremy Linn as the second Vol to win an NCAA title in the 100 breaststroke but came up just short at the wall. Top-seeded Fabian Schwingenschlogl of Missouri won in 51.29, and Stevens took second in 51.51.
"Peter put together a fantastic race tonight," Kredich said. "He's really matured a lot and is swimming great races. It's the best race I've ever seen him put together. Morning to night, he made some great changes and went faster."
Stevens did surpass Linn in one category: the Tennessee school record. Stevens broke Linn's long-standing 1997 record in the morning and lowered the time further in the final. Linn, a four-time NCAA breaststroke champion, competed at the McAuley Aquatic Center during the 1996 Olympic Games, earning a silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and contributing to a winning medley relay for Team USA.
"Jeremy's record was one of the longest-standing American records ever," Kredich said. "That was a monumental swim."
Sophomore Sam McHugh led off the scoring for the Vols during the evening finals, placing seventh in the 400 IM in 3:42.38. It was McHugh's first career NCAA championship final.
Lehane also added team points in the 100 backstroke, swimming 45.92 in consolation to finish 14th. He has been an honorable mention All-American in the event for thee years.
The Vols capped the night with a sixth-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The team of Lehane, Stevens, Ryan Coetzee and Kyle DeCoursey moved up two places from the preliminaries with a time of 1:24.11.
INSIDE DIVING: Missed dives at the beginning of preliminaries cost Liam Stone and Mauricio Robles spots in the final eight in the 3-meter diving competition. Stone, who won the NCAA 1-meter title on Friday, rallied from a slow start but was eight points out of the final eight.
Both Vols tallied points for Tennessee in the consolation finals. Stone was two points shy of his school record with a total of 461.50 to finish ninth overall; the score was a point higher than the eventual winning score in the championship finals. Robles finished third in consolation and 11th overall with 418.75.
"Liam showed a real fighting spirit and I was pleased with that. You hate to be in that position, but it says a lot," Tennessee diving coach Dave Parrington said. "Mauricio missed the same dive that Liam missed. Again, championship meets sometimes bring things out of competitors you don't expect. Unfortunately, that happened to us today, but he fought back like a champion that he is.
"They put themselves in position to get in the consolation finals and do a great job there."
UP NEXT: The NCAA championships conclude Saturday with the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 400 freestyle relay, platform diving and the 1650 freestyle.
"The trend is that we're improving our seed times and we're for the most part getting better at night," Kredich said. "We've got another big day tomorrow. We're in a tight team battle with about seven teams. It's important we put another great day tomorrow to keep building on what we've done so far."
