COLLEGE STATION, Texas - After one full day of competition at the 2001 Men's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, the Auburn University men sit in fifth place with 83 points with the team's strongest two days remaining.

"The day wasn't what we had hoped for," head coach David Marsh said. "Tonight, with the relay swimming faster than the old NCAA record and getting the school record really turns things around though. It is just a great demonstration of senior leadership with Jeff Somensatto taking the backstroke leg not being a backstroker and having the second-fastest split in Auburn history."

Starting off the evening, the Auburn men's 200-yard free relay team of Eric vanGoethem, Greg Busse, Justin Caron and Andy Haidinyak pulled out an eighth place finish for the Tigers with a time of 1:19.51.

In the 200 individual medley, Auburn placed three in the consolation finals with senior Jeff Somensatto taking 10th place with a time of 1:46.49 while teammates Kevin Clements took 11th (1:46.56) and Kirk Hampleman finished 15th (1:47.88).

The Tigers entered the evening's 400 medley relay final seeded at No. 3 and ended up with an astounding race placing second (3:07.17) with a new school record and actually breaking the old NCAA, American and US Open Record of 3:07.28, but will not hold those records because the winning Texas relay recorded a time of 3:05.37.

Somensatto, Denniston, Haidinyak and Busse broke the old school record of 3:08.96 and the old NCAA Record of 3:07.28 in the final swim of the night to set a standard for Friday morning's events.

"I knew we were having a great race," Denniston said. "Texas was flying, but I felt really good and everyone else on the relay felt really great too. We were very excited because we had a rough day, but tonight we picked up everyone's spirits and we feel good heading into tomorrow."

Auburn added 12 All-America honors to its lengthy list Thursday night with vanGoethem, Busse, Richard Long, Caron and Haidinyak earning All-America status in the 200 free relay, Busse again in the 50 free and Jon Karr, Somensatto, Dave Denniston, Haidinyak and Busse in the 400 medley relay. Earning Honorable Mention All-American on the night were Somensatto, Clements and Hampleman in the 200 IM.

"Some highlights of the day were getting the 200 free relay in the finals and Eric vanGoethem was key in that in the prelims," Marsh said. "We didn't have a terrible day, but it took our last race of the day to have a brilliant race. Tomorrow morning is key to the momentum and key to an excellent performance in the rest of the meet."