Outside Smoke! California Scorches 200 Medley Relay From Lane 8 With American Record

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AUSTIN, Texas, March 28. CALIFORNIA, which barely made the finals as the eighth-seeded team from this morning, put together a sterling performance to set the American record in the 200-yard medley relay at the NCAA Division I Men’s Championships.

The foursome of Ryan Murphy (20.90), Chuck Katis (23.29), Tony Cox (19.99) and Tyler Messerschmidt (18.65) raced their way to a 1:22.83. That performance beat the American record of 1:23.02 set by SwimMAC in December with the team of Nick Thoman, Eric Knight, Tim Phillips and Cullen Jones.

“It’s very important. Just having the whole team behind us and seeing our fans in (Cal) Bear suits just really got us going,” Cox said. “We honestly didn’t think we had a chance to win that. We just wanted to go fast and do the best that we could. It went a little better than planned. It was pretty good. We didn’t think we’d break it by that much so it was pretty exciting so we’re moving on to our next events now.”

Texas’ Kip Darmody (20.88), John Murray (23.45), Jack Conger (20.01) and Caleb Weir (18.96) powered their way to second in 1:23.20, while Auburn’s Joe Patching (21.68), Michael Duderstadt (23.65), Marcelo Chierighini (20.17) and Kyle Darmody (178.37) clocked a strong third-place 1:23.87.

That’s California’s fourth win in the event’s history, matching victories in 2005, 2010 and 2011.

Florida State (1:24.57), Florida (1:24.82), Georgia (1:14.87) and Alabama (1:25.07) finished fourth through seventh in the finale.

And, in what is becoming the storyline of the meet, the 17th relay disqualification in two days occurred with an early relay exchange between Kevin Cordes and Giles Smith on Arizona’s relay.

Missouri’s Logan Mosley (21.32), Sam Tierney (23.89), Andrew Sansoucie (20.52) and Michael Chadwick (19.21) turned in a consolation win with a time of 1:26.02. Michigan, still in the thick of the team title race, took second in 1:25.58 after winning this event a year ago.

Penn State (1:25.61), NC State (1:25.66), Tennessee (1:25.66), USC (1:25.87), UNLV (1:26.24) and Kentucky (1:26.25) also scored team points in the consolation heat.

Splits
1 California 1:25.03 1:22.83A 40
1) Ryan Murphy FR 2) r:+0.23 Chuck Katis JR
3) r:+0.32 Tony Cox SR 4) r:+0.13 Tyler Messerscmidt SO
10.39 20.90 (20.90)
31.26 (10.36) 44.19 (23.29)
53.32 (9.13) 1:04.18 (19.99)
1:12.98 (8.80) 1:22.83 (18.65)
2 Texas 1:24.02 1:23.30 34
1) Kip Darmody JR 2) r:+0.28 John Murray SO
3) r:+0.14 Jack Conger FR 4) r:+0.22 Caleb Weir SR
10.50 20.88 (20.88)
30.98 (10.10) 44.33 (23.45)
53.12 (8.79) 1:04.34 (20.01)
1:13.33 (8.99) 1:23.30 (18.96)
3 Auburn 1:24.84 1:23.87 32
1) *Joe Patching FR 2) r:+0.15 Michael Duderstadt FR
3) r:+0.20 *Marcelo Chierhini SR 4) r:+0.12 Kyle Darmody FR
10.78 21.68 (21.68)
32.47 (10.79) 45.33 (23.65)
54.07 (8.74) 1:05.50 (20.17)
1:14.18 (8.68) 1:23.87 (18.37)

Team Standings
1. California 185
2. Texas 180
3. Florida 165
4. Michigan 123
5. Georgia 100
6. Auburn 86
7. Arizona 68.5
8. Florida State 68
9. Alabama 64.5
10. USC 57

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