Arizona gets one that got away

AUBURN, Ala. - At the time, signing Ryk Neethling didn't seem like a big deal to Michigan. The Wolverines had just won the 1995 national championship, and when Neethling - a little-known high school swimmer from South Africa - sent a letter to Jon Urbanchek the following year, the Michigan coach had no scholarships left. So he didn't sign him.

After all, the Wolverines already were very strong in the long-distance freestyle events, Neethling's domain. They had Olympic gold medalist Tom Dolan, who still holds NCAA records in the 500- and 1,650-yard races. And they had Olympic silver-medalist Tom Malchow to complement the host of other distance swimmers. So Neethling was hardly a necessity.

JOHN KRAFT/Daily Chris Thompson (left) and teammate Tom Malchow became victims of Ryk Neethling's NCAA dominance, with Thompson losing two events.

But the South African pursued Michigan. In fact, it was his first choice. Neethling badly wanted to swim in the United States and he wanted to be a part of Michigan's dynasty.

"In high school, I always dreamed of coming to the United States on a swimming scholarship," Neethling said. "I wanted to swim for Michigan because at that time they were the dominant team."

Neethling especially idolized Dolan, the benchmark for college swimming during his generation. He wanted to wear maize and blue and win gold like his hero. But Michigan never gave him the chance.

"He gets my vote now," Urbanchek said. "In hindsight, I'd like to have him. But at the time we didn't have any scholarship money for him, we had already spent it."

At the NCAA Championships this past weekend, Neethling burned Michigan for turning him down The sophomore twice destroyed any hopes the Wolverines had of winning a gold medal. Thursday night, Neethling dominated the 500 free from the get-go and broke the pool record by seven seconds.

Michigan's Malchow and freshman Chris Thompson could only play catch-up the entire race and watch their golden hopes motor away on Neethling's back.

Malchow finished in second, 4.3 seconds behind the South African machine and Thompson took the bronze, 5.33 seconds out of first. Malchow and Neethling were supposed to battle it out Friday in the 200 free. But Malchow, the Big Ten swimmer of the year, struggled in the preliminaries and didn't even make the consolation round. Neethling cruised to an easy victory and another Martin Aquatics Center record in the 200 free.

But Neethling wasn't done yet. Once again, Thompson found himself chasing Neethling from the beginning of the race. Within minutes it became obvious that no one was going to catch the Wildcat, swimming an entire pool length in front of the pack.

But Neethling was still chasing after someone else. He was tracking down Dolan, trying to break his hero's NCAA record in the 1,650 - one which was thought unreachable.

"I didn't think he'd break Dolan's record," Urbanchek said. "And I'm an expert on that subject. I don't think Dolan was worried about it either."

Urbanchek was right, the record still stands. But Neethling came within three seconds of Dolan's seemingly untouchable 14:29.31. And he was actually on pace to beat it halfway through Saturday's race.

"I've known I had a chance at the record for a couple years," Neethling said. "I started thinking about breaking it last January.

"I wouldn't say that I don't like Michigan or I wanted to rub it in their face. I just had something to prove."

He certainly proved his worth at the NCAAs. Neethling ended up with three goal medals and topped all swimmers at the meet by scoring 60 points.

Not bad for an unrecruited, no-name kid from South Africa.

04-01-98