March 30, 2004
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - Sophomore Giordan Pogioli received the first All-America honor of his career after placing fourth in the championship finals of the 200-meter breaststroke Saturday night at the NCAA Championships.
Pogioli, who placed 18th in this event a year ago, finished with a time of 2:08.81. When converted to short course yardage, his time equaled a new varsity record of 1:55.41. His previous best of 1:56.13 was recorded in February at the Big Ten Championships.
A native of Peoria, Ill., Pogioli is Purdue's first true All-American since Matthew Martin placed among the top-eight in the 1,650 freestyle during the 2001 championships. He is also the first to achieve All-America status in the 200 breast since Vilmos Kovacs in 1999.
Pogioli moved up three spots during the finals, after having placed seventh in the preliminary round Saturday afternoon with a time of 2:10.06.
"Giordan simply did an awesome job," said head coach Dan Ross. "He was in lane one next to (Auburn's) Mark Gangloff and hung with him the whole time and then blew past him towards the end. He had a real strong finish, which is a tribute to all the hard work he has put in this season."
Finishing ahead of Pogioli were Texas' Brendan Hansen, who posted a new NCAA record of 2:04.73, Wyoming's Scott Usher and Stanford's Gary Marshall. During Friday's 100 breast, Auburn senior Gangloff finished runner-up to Hansen with a time of 58.79.
Auburn won its second consecutive national title with a staggering 634 points. Stanford placed a distant second with 377.5 points, holding off Texas, which scored 374 points. Arizona was fourth and Michigan rounded out the top five.
With 16 points, Purdue finished the championship meet in 27th place, beating Big Ten rivals Iowa (14) and Ohio State (13).