July 5, 1999

(Notre Dame, Ind.) – Team USA’s Dan Szilier, a sophomore swimmer at Notre Dame, finished ninth in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:18.88 Sunday at the World University Games in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Szilier (Norristown, Pa.) came in a little less than three seconds behind event-winner Roman Makarov of Russia, who won the 200-meter race with a time of 2:16.07. Barry Wynn, the other American swimmer, placed eight, just five one-hundredths of a second faster than Szilier, who swam the trials in 2:20.49. The USA mens and womens swimming teams captured three gold and two bronze medals overall on the first day of competition.

Szilier had qualified for the World University Games by finishing seventh at the Phillips 66 National Championships last summer to become the first mens swimmer from Notre Dame to qualify for a U.S. national team in the 40-year history of the program. He followed in the footsteps of Notre Dame womens swimmer Erin Brooks, who earned a bronze medal in the 200-meter backstroke at the 1997 Games in Sicily, Italy.

Mens 200-Meter Breaststroke - Final:1. Roman Makarov,  RUS, 2:16.072. Yoshiaki Okita, JPN, 2:16.123. Andrei Perminov, RUS,  2:17.154. Akira Hayashi, JPN, 2:17.215. Santi Castellanos, ESP,  2:17.606. Filip Wronski, POL, 2:18.037. Simon Leighfield, AUS,  2:18.348. Barry Wynn, USA, 2:18.38 (31.35, 1:06.36, 1:41.99,  2:18.38)9. Dan Szilier, USA, 2:18.88 (31.93, 1:07.17, 1:42.98,  2:18.88)
Preliminaries:1. Roman Makarov, RUS, 2:16.022. Yoshiaki Okita, JPN,  2:16.463. Akira Hayashi, JPN, 2:16.814. Filip Wronski, POL, 2:17.685. Simon Leighfield, AUS, 2:18.226. Barry Wynn, USA, 2:18.407. Santi Castellanos, ESP, 2:18.768. Andrei Perminov, RUS, 2:19.149. Dan Szilier, USA,  2:20.49