NCAA Men's Division I Championships: Texas Blows Roof Off Pool With American, NCAA, U.S. Open Record to Win 800 Free Relay; Dave Walters Sets American Record on Leadoff - ON-DEMAND VIDEO AVAILABLE -- March 27, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 27. THE University of Texas held off a hard charge from Arizona to end the Wildcats' three-year winning streak in the 800-yard free relay. And, the Longhorns did it with an American, NCAA and U.S. Open record.
Dave Walters leadoff the Texas relay with an American-record time of 1:31.72. That swim beat the 1:31.83 he set back in December and is the third-fastest 200 free of all time. Only Simon Burnett's NCAA and U.S. Open record 1:31.20 and Florida's Shaune Fraser's 1:31.70 posted this evening to win the individual title are faster.
Walters, Ricky Berens (1:32.15), Scott Jostes (1:33.20) and Michael Klueh (1:33.09) then finished off the relay American, NCAA, and U.S. Open record with a combined 6:10.16. The swim broke the previous record of 6:10.55 set by Texas last year at Big 12s.
The triumph gave Texas an NCAA-leading 10th title in the distance relay event. Texas previously won in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003.
Arizona's Jean Basson (1:32.48), Nick Nilo (1:32.84), Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or (1:33.51) and Joel Greenshields (1:32.99) snared second in 6:11.82, while Stanford's Austin Staab (1:32.99), Bobby Bollier (1:34.35), Jake Allen (1:34.72) and Rob Andrews (1:34.65) claimed third in 6:16.71.
Texas jumped back into the lead with Auburn taking eighth in 6:21.86. Texas will enter the final day of action with 348 points, ahead of Auburn's second-place 342. Stanford (298.5), California (239) and Arizona (229) made up the rest of the top five.
