March 27, 2004

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - The Arizona State men's swimming and diving team closed out the 2003-04 season with an 18th place finish (62 points) at the NCAA Championships that wrapped up Saturday night at the Nassau County Aquatic Center. The Sun Devils were led on the final day by senior Nick Brunelli who placed 10th in the 100m freestyle.

The Pac-10 200 freestyle champion recorded a time of 48.33 in the 100 free on Saturday night after his morning preliminary time of 48.19 was only one-hundredth of a second short of qualifying for the championship final. The other Sun Devil in action on the final evening was sophomore David Kolozar who placed 14th in the 200m butterfly with a time of 1:57.82.

In the morning preliminaries, ASU had senior Ahmed Hussein in the 200m backstroke (1:58.06), junior Jeff Barrett in the 100m free (49.79) and sophomore diver Joona Puhakka on the platform (392.15), who yesterday won the national championship on the 3m springboard. Final standings of the 2004 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships are as follows:

                           FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

 1)   AUBURN            634               19)   MIAMI (FLORIDA)    56
 2)   STANFORD          377.5             20)   SOUTH CAROLINA     52
 3)   TEXAS             374               21)   LOUISIANA STATE    37
 4)   ARIZONA           322               22)   WYOMING            33
 5)   MICHIGAN          271               23)   NORTH CAROLINA     23
 6)   FLORIDA           266               24)   S.M.U.             22
 7)   CAL. BERKELEY     255.5             25)   WASHINGTON         20
 8)   TENNESSEE         140               25)   HAWAII             20
 9)   MINNESOTA         130               27)   PURDUE             16
10)   GEORGIA           112.5             28)   IOWA               14
11)   NORTHWESTERN      112               28)   NAVY               14
12)   TEXAS A&M         111               30)   OHIO STATE         13
13)   VIRGINIA          108.5             30)   HARVARD            13
14)   SOUTHERN CAL.     106               32)   PITTSBURGH          6
15)   KENTUCKY           83               33)   VIRGINIA TECH       5
16)   WISCONSIN          79.5             34)   ALABAMA             3
17)   INDIANA            75.5             35)   CLEMSON             2
18)   ARIZONA STATE      62               35)   GEORGIA TECH        2