Swimmer and diver wrap up season with NCAA showing

Two members of the IU men's swimming and diving team traveled to Austin, Texas, this weekend to compete in the 2003 NCAA Championships. Junior All-American diver and 2003 Big Ten Diver-of-the-year Marc Carlton and junior sprinter Claes Andersson made the trip to close out the season at the national competition. \nCarlton earned his NCAA berth by placing second in the NCAA diving regionals earlier this month while Andersson qualified for the meet during the regular season.\nCarlton placed sixth on the platform and eighth on the three-meter boards to make him a three-time All-American. But Carlton said he was not pleased with his performance. After placing only 23rd on the one-meter, Carlton said he was rattled by his poor performance and that threw him off. \n"It wasn't a good meet," Carlton said. "And how I placed doesn't represent what I can do. I didn't attack as aggressively as I should have." \nCarlton said all week the coaches praised him for what he had already done throughout the year, which caused him to relax a bit once the competition started. \n"We were pleased with his performance, but certainly not satisfied," 2003 Big Ten Diving Coach-of-the-year Jeff Huber said. "He made a major improvement (from last year), but we felt he had the capability of winning."\nHuber said Carlton is already looking optimistic for his senior season. \nAndersson finished 44th overall in the 100-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 44.66.\n"We were happy with Claes' 100-freestyle performance," coach Ray Looze said. "But his 50-yard freestyle could have been better. He was well-prepared, but he was still not satisfied with his finish."\nUnder the first year of coaching Looze, the team finished remarkably well with an 8-1, 5-1 Big Ten record in the dual meet season and placed third overall at the Big Ten Championships. \n"We want to schedule at least five opponents that finished in the top ten this season for next year to better prepare our team for championship meets," Looze said.\nThe Hoosiers finished in 21st place as a team, good for their best finish since 1999. Auburn won the event with 609.5 points, host Texas took second and Stanford finished in third.