Relay leg, butterfly record highlight Crocker’s year Portland native led Texas swim team to NCAA title

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Going into the final day of competition at the NCAA men’s swimming championships, University of Texas sophomore Ian Crocker said that he didn’t know what to expect.

“We were definitely in a struggle with Stanford. We knew they would be tough. We’d been telling ourselves that we would beat them, but I’m sure 70 percent of us thought there was no way we’d beat them,” the Portland native and Cheverus High School graduate said.

But the Longhorns managed to do just that thanks largely to Crocker’s anchor leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The 400-yard freestyle relay was the final event of the championships and Texas had a slight edge on Stanford. Crocker said Cal-Berkeley was the favorite in the event.

“We needed to finish at least sixth and have Stanford do no better than second,” Crocker said.

The 19-year-old Crocker, who had earlier in the meet set U.S. and NCAA records in the 100-yard butterfly, said his team was in big trouble when he entered the water.

“By the time I left the blocks we were seventh and Stanford was first. I had to get that out of my head and swim. When I hit the wall [a teammate] looked over the edge of the pool and screamed we did it. It was such an emotional moment,” Crocker said.

Crocker had pulled his Texas team into a third place in the event. That, coupled with Stanford finishing second, gave the Longhorns their third straight national championship.

Crocker not only broke the 100-yard butterfly records but he did it twice in one day.

“It’s really important to swim your heart out in the morning to make sure you have a spot in the finals. I just went for it that night, too. I knew I already had the points for the team,” Crocker said.

Crocker’s preliminary time of 45.70 seconds broke the American record of 45.89 was set by Dod Wales of Stanford in 1999.

That evening in the championship final, Crocker’s 45.44 broke his own American record and the NCAA record held by Lars Frolander of Sweden of 45.59 that he set in 1998 while swimming for SMU.

“It was very special to set it at such an important meet,” Crocker said.

Crocker burst onto the international scene with a gold medal in the 400 medley relay and a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter butterfly at the Sydney Olympics as a 17-year-old.

He said in a week he will begin training for the U.S. Nationals in August. The meet also serves as a qualifier for the Pan-Pacific Games later that month in Japan. He also plans to compete in the world championships next year.

The training schedule leaves little time for visits home.

“I get home about twice a year. I miss Maine. I miss the ocean and my family,” Crocker said. “But I’ve got a good home here as well.”

Violette’s tourney aftermath

Cory Violette is almost over Gonzaga’s opening-round loss to Wyoming in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Almost, but not quite.

The 6-foot-8 power forward, who was born in Gray and has family members in Hampden and Aroostook County, still has trouble with the way his team lost.

“We shot such a horrible percentage: 26.8 [percent]. That’s something our team has never shot before,” Violette said.

In the end Gonzaga fell 73-66 to Wyoming.

“If at any time our shots had started to fall we would have blown them out. But they played a good game,” Violette said.

Violette, a sophomore who played high school basketball in Boise, Idaho, said his team is beginning to regroup.

“We’re lifting weights. We haven’t started playing yet,” Violette said.

He also said that he didn’t watch much of the tournament once Gonzaga was ousted.

“I flip it on from time to time. I’ll probably watch [the national championship game],” he said Monday.

Gonzaga loses one starter from a team that went 29-4, but it’s a big loss in All-America guard Dan Dickau. There is also the potential for another big loss – head coach Mark Few is reportedly being romanced by the University of Washington.

Should Few depart it would be the second head coaching defection in four years. Former head coach Dan Monson left the school for the University of Minnesota.

Such is the lot for players at small schools that are successful.

“We hear [Few] could be leaving, but we’re not sure. We hope he’s staying,” Violette said.

Violette said he is hoping to make it back to his family’s cabin at Portage Lake sometime during the summer, but his focus will be on basketball and that could mean another long summer of weightlifting and voluntary workouts in the gym.

One thing is certain, Violette is hoping that should Gonzaga make it back to the tourney next year that the Bulldogs have a better game.

“We’ve had a half here or there where we didn’t play well but never a whole game like that,” Violette said.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net