COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 20. FLORIDA's Caroline Burckle felt the rush of an absolute eruption at the McCorckle Aquatic Pavilion at the NCAA Division I Championships as she downed the 18-year old NCAA record of Janet Evans in the 500 free.
Burckle ripped off a time of 4:33.60 to down the 4:34.39 set by Evans back in 1990. While Evans split times of 53.48, 1:48.90, 2:44.40 and 3:40.19 along the way to the previous standard, Burckle cut her record time down as follows: 52.14, 1:47.07, 2:42.31 and 3:38.25.
The time also stands as the fourth-best of all time behind only Katie Hoff's American record 4:30.47 and Kate Ziegler's times of 4:32.71 and 4:33.35. Incidentally, Burckle also became the third-fastest swimmer in the event all time after initially standing fourth behind Evans with a 4:34.87 coming into today.
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The victory is also Florida's fifth all time in the event, trailing only Stanford's tally of seven.
Joining her in the heat, Auburn's Maggie Bird snatched second place with a time of 4:39.51, while Texas A&M's Kristen Heiss took third in 4:40.03.
Burckle's 5.91-second triumph over Bird also broke another record previously held by Evans for the largest margin of victory in the 500 free at an NCAA Championship meet. Evans, during her 4:34.39 performance, beat Florida's Whitney Hedgepeth (4:38.80) by 4.41 seconds back in 1990.
Auburn jumped into the lead with 50 points, while Arizona sat second with 46 points. Texas A&M (42), California (41) and Florida (34) rounded out the top five.
Click here for event results.
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Photo By: Peter H. Bick
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