COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Senior Nate Dusing (Villa Hills, Ky.) led the University of Texas men's swimming and diving team to several NCAA titles in the first day of competition at the 2001 NCAA Championships on Thursday, March 22 at the Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Dusing captured his first individual NCAA title and set an American and NCAA record in the 200 IM with a time of 1:42.85, breaking the nine-year-old set by Greg Burgess of Florida in 1993 (1:43.87). Texas (185) stands in first place with a 15-point lead over Stanford (170) and Tennessee (114.5), who are in second and third, respectively.

Dusing would also swim the lead-off of the winning 400 medley relay, which also set an American and NCAA record of 3:05.37. The Longhorn team of Dusing, freshman Brendan Hansen (Havertown, Pa.), junior Tommy Hannan (Baltimore, Md) and freshman Ian Crocker (Portland, Maine) smashed the NCAA and American record held by Stanford in 1995, by nearly two seconds.

"We are witnessing a great NCAA meet," said Texas head coach Eddie Reese. "Without a doubt, this was an amazingly fast event to get into. Everybody stepped it up tonight. I would rather have a 100-point lead, because Stanford is a dangerous team. But I know it's better to be ahead than behind."

On the diving board, Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) captured his second consecutive title on the one-meter springboard, posting a score of 397.60, while junior Justin Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) finished fifth with a score of 356.10.

"As a whole I did well," said Troy Dumais. "I kept my head in the competition and did well. Everyone expected me to be seeded first heading into tonight's finals, but I wanted to give it my all in the finals, so I held back in this morning's prelims.I just made sure I qualified for finals, then I competed with everything I had on the one-meter."

Texas opened the night with the foursome of freshman Ian Crocker (Portland, Maine), senior Matt Ulrickson (Scottsdale, Ariz.), junior Leffie Crawford (Pacifica, Calif.) and freshman Tony Diers (Houston, Texas) claiming sixth-place honors in the 200 freestyle relay (1:18.16). The Stanford team of Randal Bal, Anthony Robinson, Jeff Guyman and Bobby O'Bryan set a pool record with a time of 1:16.83 for first place.

In the second event of the night, senior Scott Goldblatt (Scotch Plains, N.J.) placed fourth in the 500 freestyle with a season-best time of 4:16.41. His time also ranks third on the UT's Top Ten Best Times list. Sophomore Chris Kemp (Southlake, Texas) posted ninth-place honors (4:18.57) and senior Jamie Rauch (Houston, Texas) claimed 16th in the 500 freestyle (4:21.57).

While Dusing notched his record-breaking time in the 200 IM, junior Tommy Hannan (Baltimore, Md.) followed in second with a time of 1:43.87 and junior Joey Montague claimed fifth-place honors (1:46.31).

Other Texas contributions came from Crawford and Crocker, who finished 11th and 13th, respectively in the 50 freestyle. Stanford's Anthony Robinson notched the upset, finishing in front of California's Anthony Erwin, who posted a time of 19:23.