Connor Jaeger Defends Title With Smooth Swim in 1650 Free

Connor Jaeger

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AUSTIN, Texas, March 29. MICHIGAN’s Connor Jaeger didn’t rival the time he went to win the men’s 1650-yard freestyle last year, but he didn’t need that type of speed as he cruised to his second straight crown at the NCAA Division I Men’s Championships.

Jaeger posted a time of 14:29.27 as he put together a smooth swim from start to finish. That performance is the 10th best of all time and gives Michigan its eighth mile win in NCAA history. Jaeger became the first swimmer to defend the 1650 since Erik Vendt did so for USC in 2002 and 2003.

“My mentality going into this meet was so different than any before just because of how incredibly sentimental it is to do your last college meet,” Jaeger said. “Maybe I’m going to be lucky enough to continue swimming beyond this but it’s never going to be the same and it will never compare to the years I spent swimming for Michigan. Coming into the meet I was thinking a lot about defending the title. Then tonight thinking about the team scores I just wanted to get as many points as I could.”

California’s Jeremy Bagshaw had a huge swim out of heat four of five, pushing himself to second in the timed final event with a 14:39.00. That effort could prove huge as California starts chipping away at Texas’ slight seeding advantage for the team title.

Florida’s Arthur Frayler picked up third in 14:43.08, while Northwestern’s Jordan Wilimovsky placed fourth in 14:44.36.

Auburn’s Zane Grothe (14:45.55), Georgia’s Andrew Gemmell (14:46.17), Florida’s Mitch D’Arrigo (14:47.36) and Georgia’s Matias Koski (14:47.74) rounded out the top eight.

Penn’s Chris Swanson (14:49.63), Michigan’s Sean Ryan (14:50.61), Georgia’s Will Freeman (14:50.69), Denver’s Dylan Bunch (14:50.96), Michigan’s Anders Nielsen (14:51.18), Stanford’s Danny Thomson (14:52.17), Cal Poly’s Sonny Fierro (14:56.01) and Minnesota’s CJ Smith (14:56.09) also scored team points with ninth through 16th in the timed final event.

Texas failed to score a single point in the mile, which could be huge by the end of the night.

Splits
1 Jaeger, Connor SR Michigan 14:34.19 14:29.27 20
r:+0.77 24.63 51.61 (26.98)
1:18.62 (27.01) 1:45.38 (26.76)
2:12.28 (26.90) 2:39.22 (26.94)
3:05.65 (26.43) 3:32.37 (26.72)
3:58.72 (26.35) 4:25.40 (26.68)
4:52.07 (26.67) 5:18.80 (26.73)
5:45.28 (26.48) 6:11.65 (26.37)
6:38.27 (26.62) 7:04.82 (26.55)
7:31.26 (26.44) 7:57.67 (26.41)
8:24.17 (26.50) 8:50.71 (26.54)
9:16.92 (26.21) 9:43.52 (26.60)
10:09.74 (26.22) 10:35.95 (26.21)
11:01.85 (25.90) 11:28.14 (26.29)
11:54.41 (26.27) 12:20.60 (26.19)
12:46.88 (26.28) 13:13.08 (26.20)
13:39.16 (26.08) 14:04.55 (25.39) 14:29.27 (24.72)
2 Bagshaw, Jeremy SR California 14:56.00 14:39.00 17
r:+0.77 24.60 51.03 (26.43)
1:17.56 (26.53) 1:44.53 (26.97)
2:11.37 (26.84) 2:38.09 (26.72)
3:04.86 (26.77) 3:31.59 (26.73)
3:58.21 (26.62) 4:25.01 (26.80)
4:52.01 (27.00) 5:19.21 (27.20)
5:46.26 (27.05) 6:13.24 (26.98)
6:40.04 (26.80) 7:06.87 (26.83)
7:33.72 (26.85) 8:00.52 (26.80)
8:27.25 (26.73) 8:54.24 (26.99)
9:21.18 (26.94) 9:48.00 (26.82)
10:14.89 (26.89) 10:41.45 (26.56)
11:08.14 (26.69) 11:35.28 (27.14)
12:02.17 (26.89) 12:29.08 (26.91)
12:56.43 (27.35) 13:23.03 (26.60)
13:49.65 (26.62) 14:15.06 (25.41) 14:39.00 (23.94)
3 Frayler, Arthur SO Florida 14:38.06 14:43.08 16
r:+0.75 24.82 51.84 (27.02)
1:18.74 (26.90) 1:45.73 (26.99)
2:12.59 (26.86) 2:39.59 (27.00)
3:06.37 (26.78) 3:32.95 (26.58)
3:59.66 (26.71) 4:26.32 (26.66)
4:53.07 (26.75) 5:19.87 (26.80)
5:46.58 (26.71) 6:13.26 (26.68)
6:40.08 (26.82) 7:06.88 (26.80)
7:33.76 (26.88) 8:00.74 (26.98)
8:27.68 (26.94) 8:54.78 (27.10)
9:21.70 (26.92) 9:48.50 (26.80)
10:15.30 (26.80) 10:42.21 (26.91)
11:09.12 (26.91) 11:35.97 (26.85)
12:02.91 (26.94) 12:29.95 (27.04)
12:56.88 (26.93) 13:23.89 (27.01)
13:50.68 (26.79) 14:17.36 (26.68) 14:43.08 (25.72)

Team Standings
1. California 329.5
2. Texas 318.5
3. Florida 307
4. Michigan 256
5. Georgia 230
6. USC 140
7. Arizona 135.5
8. Auburn 135
9. Stanford 120
10. Florida State 96

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