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Tankers' lack of depth too much to overcome

AUSTIN, Texas -- As an actor, Tom Cruise is quite experienced with the necessity for quickness.

In "Days of Thunder", Cruise puts the pedal to the metal as a race car driver, knowing that the only way to win is to be the fastest.

But the role which personified the actor's desire to defy the speed limit is the one when he played Maverick in "Top Gun".

One quote alone best exemplifies this notion -- "I feel the need, the need for speed."

Although he didn't know it at the time, Cruise had found the formula for winning the 1996 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.

Given the numerous amount of events catered to proficiency in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, it should come as no surprise that in the end, the teams that dominated the sprints, Texas and Auburn, finished first and second in the meet, respectively.

Meanwhile Michigan, the defending champion noticeably without an entrant in either the 50 or 100 freestyle events, could finish no higher than third.

The Wolverines, who were without last year's victor in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle races, Gustavo Borges, finished the meet with 358 points as opposed to last year's 561 total, marking the loss of Borges' 60 points in the sprint events.

Michigan's absence in the sprints helped enable both the Longhorns and the Tigers to widen their leads on the otherwise-talented Michigan team as the two squads amassed a lot of points in the 50 and 100 free events, in addition to the sprint relays.

In the 50 free, Texas placed swimmers in fourth, sixth and seventh places while Auburn had athletes finishing eighth and 13th.

Even more noticeable were the two teams' domination of the 100 free. In this race, Longhorn swimmers captured the third spot, in addition to the 12th-15th places. The Tigers had their four entrants finish sixth through ninth.

Add this all up (113 for Texas and 98 for Auburn) and that explains Michigan's best-chance scenario with a third-place overall finish with no sprint freestylers.

The Wolverines compensated for their lack of speed by swimming several of their top swimmers out of their specialty events in the sprint relays.

Consider Michigan's 400 freestyle squad of Jason Lancaster, Derya Buyukuncu, Chris Rumley and John Piersma, which finished a distant eighth in the championship final.

In swimming a 100 freestyle leg, each of the Wolverines were swimming out of event. Buyukuncu and Lancaster are backstrokers and butterfliers, while Piersma and Rumley are more proficient in the 200 and 500 freestyle races.

Despite his proven versatility and talent in the individual medley, Tom Dolan found himself swimming perhaps his weakest stroke, the breaststroke, in the 400 medley relay.

"It's unfortunate," Dolan said. "If I'm the best guy for that, I feel badly for us. It shows the depth of our team that I'm doing sprints. They're really stretching me this season."

It's not just you, Tom.