COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Auburn University swimming and diving team remained in fifth position during day two at the 2001 Men's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships here Friday night sitting with 231 points, but pulled closer to the third and fourth positions.

Sitting in fourth place with 234 points is Southern California while No. 3 Tennessee sits with 247.5 points from the two days.

Starting off the finals competition Friday night was the Auburn 200-yard medley relay team of Jon Karr, Dave Denniston, Jeff Somensatto and Greg Busse, who swam to an impressive third place performance with a time of 1:26.26 for the Tigers.

In the second race of the evening, junior Kevin Clements broke his own school record, that he previously set at the 2001 SEC Championships, in the 400 individual medley placing third overall with a time of 3:42.90. Junior James Galloway entered the 400 IM finals seeded in 13th place with a time of 3:48.86 and cut his time to 3:47.20 while moving up to 10th place for Auburn.

The Tigers again moved up in position from the morning swim in the 100 fly finals with Andy Haidinyak taking the top time in his heat at ninth place with a time of 47.19, while Somensatto finished 11th with a time of 47.40.

Auburn again dominated the breaststroke placing five swimmers in the 100 breast final with two in the consolation finals and three in the championship finals. Denniston, a native of Littleton, Colo., led the way for the Tigers with a second place finish in a school record time of 52.62, getting edged out by Brendan Hansen of Texas (52.35). Auburn rounded out the championships finals with Pat Calhoun finishing fourth with a time of 52.98 and Mark Gangloff placing eighth in 54.08.

"We moved up from fifth to third in the team standings tonight just because of the 100 breast, which is exciting," Denniston said. "Tonight the guys are doing real well and we are looking forward to ending tomorrow on a big exclamation point."

In the 100 breast consolation finals, Justin Caron finished 10th with a time of 54.38, while junior Eric vanGoethem moved up from 16th place in the morning swim to 12th in the finals with a time of 54.57.

For the final event of the night, Auburn's 800 free relay team of Galloway, Clements, Richard Long and Brandon Roberts placed eighth with a time of 6:29.93.

"We had a very good night," head coach David Marsh said. "Tonight has probably been our best session of the meet so far. I think it was highlighted by Dave Denniston's 100 breast which was a lifetime best and the fourth fastest time in history. Our breaststroke events have really carried us all year.

"Bryce Hunt's backstroke swim was also a highlight for us tonight. He cut down his time by over a second and should have a really good 200 back tomorrow. Tomorrow we need to have six finalists and get our divers involved in the meet to bring home a third place trophy that we can be proud of."