2002-03 SDM hosts Big Ten Championships (Day 3) -- Quotes
3/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Michigan Head Coach Jon Urbanchek
On the championships ... "I thought Minnesota was well prepared for this meet. They had only one swimmer who wasn't shaved and that was Justin Mortimer, who won the mile. Both he and Peter (Vanderkaay) have the bigger picture in mind, but that was one of the best races of the night. I think the most pleasant surprise other than winning the team title was Jeff Hopwood's win in his the 200-yard breaststroke in his final plunge here in Canham Natatorium. He is a fifth-year senior co-captain and he went out there and swam his career-best time in the event. Heath Novak, our other fifth-year senior co-captain, had a great race as well, winning the consolation final of the 200-yard individual medley last night. Josh Hack won the consolation final in the 200-yard breast and I think all of that was inspired by Garrett Mangieri's exhilarating swim in the 100-yard freestyle.
"For us to win this meet, we couldn't give up any points. It was a total team effort. Our relay takeoffs in the final race were really slow because after Jason Coben nailed his final dive on the platform the only way we could lose was to be DQed. I told them to act like grandmothers on the blocks."
On winning his first Big Ten championship since 2000 ... "The last time we won it was in 2000 when we hosted it. It was a total team effort like we told the team it was going to be at the beginning of the season. As it turned out we won it with our top five guys unshaved -- Peter (Vanderkaay), Dan (Ketchum), Chris (DeJong), Davis (Tarwater) and Andrew (Hurd). That was really sweet to win this meet and still be prepared the NCAAs. It looks good for us in the big dance without giving it our all here this weekend."
On the NCAAs ... "Our goal is to finish in somewhere between four, five or six. We want to save up as much for the big dance as possible."
Fifth-Year Senior Swimmer Jeff Hopwood
On winning the Big Ten championship his last year ... "I can't even describe it. It is everything that you work for all year. It was a little sweeter winning it here at home."
On the overall meet ... "It was a hard-fought meet for three days. It was a great weekend. My hat goes of to Minnesota because they are a phenomenal team."
On the 200-yard breaststroke win he provided for the team ... "It was more of a momentum thing. I really wanted to come out and perform since we didn't do as well as we thought we should have in the mile to open up the meet. We didn't really take advantage of the five spots that we had in the final. Garrett (Mangieri) really started the momentum, grabbing second in lane two in the100 freestyle, and I came out and knew I really had to get it going."
On how he felt to win an event since his injury ... "It just caps of an incredible comeback for me personally and a great year for us as a team."
On Urbanchek winning Coach of the Year ... "I can't possibly describe this guy in a couple sentences. He is unbelievable. He is such an amazing man since he probably cares more about us out of the pool than in the pool and that is hard to come by in college these days. Jon's the kind of coach that cares about the man you become and not just how fast you swim for him. He is like a father to all of us. Our volunteer assistant Jeff (Somensatto) has done an awesome job for us to this year. We really appreciate everything the coaches have done for us."
Junior Diver Jason Coben
On if he was disappointed not being able to throw Urbanchek in the pool ... "See, my freshman and sophomore year we missed out on being able to throw anyone in the pool. I was just happy to win a Big Ten championship ring. Right before we were going to the podium to receive our Big Ten plaque Jon said to us in the '92-95 era when they won NCAAs they didn't jump in the water because they wanted to wait until they won at the NCAAs. He told us that like we weren't going to jump in. He said you guys deserve it but I'm not getting thrown in. So he just walked up and jumped in. It was pretty cool to see our coaches do that."
On what was going through his mind while diving ... "The last dive was pretty brutal since the guy in front of me did a really hard dive for a lot of points. I knew I had to get at least 60 points to beat him. I just got to the end of the board and knew I had to do it like I usually do it."
On repeating as platform champion ... "It is pretty nice to win it twice in a row, especially when it counts. I was a little disappointed that our diving coach (Chris Bergere) didn't get Coach of the Year. I know that (Indiana's) Jeff Huber is a really great coach and his divers scored an amazing amount of points. We were really hoping to get him that diving Coach of the Year award. He has never really been at a Big Ten school like this since he comes from the South, in fact my hometown. It was pretty great to have him with us and be my coach again, it was really special."
On winning the team title ... "If we didn't get this ring I could be the only class to go through my four years without getting a ring at Michigan. We were not going to let that happen. As soon as we saw the relay coming up and then Wisconsin beat Minnesota, we knew that we had the ring that we hadn't gotten. It was coming down to the last day and we were close and we lost the mile so we were getting nervous. It was great to see that happen. This was our best shot to win a ring since we are losing a lot of people next year."
Players Mentioned
