Tim Champney’s historic trip to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships – the first-ever appearances for a GW swimmer – got off to an auspicious start Friday.
Champney vomited three times after placing 27th in the 100-yard backstroke in Indianapolis but he bounced back the next day to record a personal best in the 200-yard back.
“I think I forced it,” Champney said of his 100-yard performance. “I tried muscling it rather than letting things take care of themselves.”
In posting a time of :49.43 Champney said his stroke rate was too fast and that he has swum better times with a much slower rate. The time was more than a second slower than his personal best (:48.40), which is also the Atlantic 10 record. Dan Schultz, a senior at Stanford University, won the event in a time of :47.24.
But the next day, Champney swam the 200-yard back in a time of 1:46.14, which was good enough for 21st place. He trimmed almost a second off his personal best of 1:47.09. Before NCAAs, Champney had been ranked 19th in the nation in the 100-yard back and was 36th in the nation in the 200-yard back.
“My 200 yard has been improving,” Champney said. “I came into it (the 200-yard race) very relaxed, I just wanted to take it easy.”
Champney, a junior, said this trip to NCAAs should help him next year when he hopes to return to the top collegiate meet.
“It was good just to see the meet,” he said. “I saw that there’s no reason you can’t beat some of these guys.”
Champney said it was difficult to compete by himself with no other GW swimmers in the meet when several schools had large contingents of both swimmers and fans. GW head coach Dan Rhinehart and some of Champney’s teammates made the pilgrimage to Indianapolis, but it wasn’t quite the same as having the entire team and a home crowd there pulling for him, Champney said.
“It’s hard. I think half the stands were Auburn fans,” he said.
Champney is competing in the U.S. Senior Nationals Monday through Thursday in New York. He will swim in the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes again in addition to the 100- and 200-yard freestyles.
