The 5th-ranked Tennessee swimming and diving team remained in third-place after the second day of competition at the NCAA Championships in College Station, Texas, on Saturday. Tennessee senior co-captain Michael Gilliam was the hero for the evening as he won the national championship in the 100 backstroke with a time of 45.97. The Volunteers also claimed a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay and placed four other individuals in the finals.

Gilliam's NCAA title is the second for the Nashville native who also won the 1999 NCAA 100 back title. Gilliam broke his own school record in the 100 backstroke on Thursday night with the lead-off leg in the 400 medley relay that was clocked at 45.63. Gilliam, who finished 6th in the 50 freestyle on Thurdsay, becomes the eighth Vol to win multiple individual NCAA titles.

The 200 medley relay squad set a school record with an incredibly fast swim, but fell short of the ultimate goal of winning the NCAA title and setting an American Record. The foursome of Gilliam, Jeremy McDonnell, Justin Hoggatt and Renato Gueraldi clocked a time of 1:24.75 that bettered the existing school mark of 1:25.37 that UT set at the SEC Championships last month. Texas, who broke the American Record in the prelims, improved its own mark in winning the title in a time of 1:24.47. Tennessee's time of 1:24.75 in the finals would have set American, NCAA and U.S. Open records if not for the faster time turned in by Texas.

Tennessee's senior diving duo came up big for a second night as both made the finals of the three-meter diving event. Shannon Roy finished third with a career-best score of 632.25 and Gabi Chereches finished fifth with a score of 612.75. The points scored by the pair put UT back into third place in the team race after both Southern California and Auburn had move ahead of Vols.

Vol juniors McDonnell and Hoggatt performed well in their individual event as both claimed All-America honors. McDonnell, a native of Houston, Texas, posted a 53.15 in the 100 breaststroke to finish fifth in that race. The time is just .04 of the career-best performance that won him the SEC 100 breastroke title last month. Hoggatt finished eighth in the 100 buttterfly with a time of 47.58 after swimming a career-best time of 47.01 in the prelims to qualify for the championship final.

The Volunteers closed the evening with a seventh-place finish by the 800 freestyle relay team. The quartet of Greg Simpson, Andrew Bree, Zane DeWitz and Brett Tannhauser posted a time of 6:29.43 to keeep the Vols in third place. The performance marked the first time UT had place an 800 freestyle relay team among the top eight at the NCAAs since 1990.