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Rouse Leads Stanford to Record Victory

The Associated Press
March 29, 1992

Stanford's Jeff Rouse set his fifth American record of the meet in the 200-yard backstroke, and the Cardinal scored the most points ever in winning the team title at the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships tonight.

Stanford won for the first time since 1987 with 632 points to 356 for four-time champion Texas. UCLA was third with 310 points. The previous high-point total of 506 was set by Texas in 1990. The Cardinal's 276-point advantage was the largest victory margin in the 69-year-old meet.

Rouse was unbeatable during the three-day meet. The senior from Fredericksburg, Va., won the 200 backstroke final in American-record time of 1 minute 40.64 seconds, bettering his mark of 1:42.47 set in today's preliminaries.

He set an American record of 46.12 seconds in winning the 100 backstroke Friday. Rouse won the 200 individual medley Thursday, and shared in the American records set by Stanford in three relays -- 200 free, 200 and 400 medleys.

"I ended my career with a meet that I couldn't have scripted better," said Rouse, who will swim in the Summer Olympics. "This was my ultimate challenge and the reward has been fantastic."

The Cardinal ended Texas's four-year domination and its own 25-year drought by winning the 400 freestyle relay. Rouse anchored the team of Brian Retterer, Erik Maurer and John DeGroot that swam 2:53.95 to beat Southern Cal in the final event. Texas was third.

Iowa senior Artur Wojdat won his third straight 1,650 freestyle title, ending his career with nine individual titles.

Michigan freshman Gustavo Borges added his second freestyle title of the meet, winning the 100 in 42.95 seconds over UCLA's Brian Kurza.