Finally, the drought is over. The Arizona men's swim team won the 2008 NCAA Championship over the weekend in Federal Way, Wash., the first UA men's championship since the 1997 basketball team went all the way. It comes just a week after the women counterpart won an NCAA Championship in Ohio.
But unlike the women's squad, the men's team features a bit of an international flair. Of the team's 25 members, seven of them (28 percent) hail from foreign countries. The team's two standout performers were both Olympians in 2004 - for other countries. Senior Albert Subirats comes from Venezuela, whom he participated in the Olympics for in Athens, Greece, and then there is senior Darian Townsend, who was a gold medalist in the 400-meter relay in the 2004 Olympics for South Africa. Subirats and Townsend made up the leaders of the Wildcats' 13 NCAA representatives in Washington this past weekend.
Joining the list of foreigners on the National Champion swim roster are South African sophomore Jean Basson, English freshman Robert Iddiols, Brazilian junior Nicolas Nilo, and Canadian sophomores Joel Greenshields and Jake Tapp. Nilo and Greenshields both played key parts in the championship. Greenshields was on the last leg of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay, while Nilo finished third in the 100 freestyle. Among the other internationals, Subirats won the 100 butterfly and Townsend won the 200 individual medley on Friday.
Nilo told the Arizona Daily Wildcat over the weekend: "I came from Brazil and I had no idea what 'a team' meant. My freshman year I was kind of confused and I was learning a little bit about everything. Now I think I finally got the definition of the word 'team,' and this is it."
Check the Border Beat website as early as Wednesday for a feature story on the international swimmers and all their recent endeavors.
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