California Outperforms Seeds By Wide Margin To Win Fifth NCAA Men’s Title

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AUSTIN, Texas, March 29. MOST of the projections based on the early psych sheet had Michigan and Florida going toe-to-toe for the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Championships. All of those were completely wrong as California and Texas had been close heading into the final session before the Golden Bears put on a clinic on how to win a championship during the final session.

By the end of the night, California didn’t even have to swim the 400 free relay to win, but it did and still took second. The victory delivered California its fifth NCAA title in program history, while head coach Dave Durden has now won a trio of title at the helm of the Golden Bears.

It didn’t hurt that the Golden Bears won three relay titles and earned a backstroke sweep from super freshman Ryan Murphy, but the momentum definitely shifted when Jeremy Bagshaw cut 17 seconds from his lifetime best in the 1650 free to finish second out of the slower heats to start finals, and the Golden Bears never let up.

Texas, meanwhile, took second to California, 468.5 to 417.5, ending the chance of Eddie Reese tying Mike Peppe for the most career coaching men’s titles at 11. Reese, however, still remains just one of four coaches to hit double digits in wins at Richard Quick (13) and David Marsh (12) own the overall record from wins in both the men’s and women’s meets.

Texas had been vying to become the first team to ever win an NCAA title without winning a swimming event following a pair of diving titles from Michael Hixon in the one meter and three meter events. But, those dreams were shattered after a monster night from Durden’s Golden Bears this evening.

Although Florida’s Marcin Cieslak had a tremendous meet with a pair of victories in the 200 IM and 100 fly, when he missed the win in the 200 fly on the final night, Arizona’s Kevin Cordes could not be denied as Swimmer of the Meet. Cordes put on a display in the breaststroke events that this sport has never seen. He broke the 100 breast American record twice on day two, nearly breaking the 50-second barrier with his winning 50.04. He then clipped the 200 breast American record during finals on day three.

Although there were plenty of fast performances and amazing efforts during the three days of action here in Austin, what will go down as the top storyline is the fact that 18 relays were disqualified in just three days of swimming. This included six in the 400 medley relay.

The punchline of the meet proved to be how many times announcer Sam Kendricks had to say “Results are unofficial,” which basically means that someone likely DQed in the previous event. Conspiracy theories ran rampant, with some calling into question the relay takeoff pads accuracy in the first place.

CSCAA Awards
Swimmer of the Year
Kevin Cordes, Arizona

Swimming Coach of the Year
Dave Durden, California

Diver of the Year
Michael Hixon, Texas

Diving Coach of the Year
Matt Scoggin, Texas

Event Winners
Alabama
Kristian Gkolomeev (50 free tie)

Auburn
400 free relay

Arizona
Kevin Cordes (100 breast AR, 200 breast AR)
Brad Tandy (50 free tie)

California
Ryan Murphy (100 back, 200 back)
200 free relay
200 medley relay (American record)
400 medley relay

Duke
Nick McCrory (10M diving)

Florida
Marcin Cieslak (200 IM, 100 fly)

Georgia
Chase Kalisz (400 IM)

Louisville
Joao De Lucca (200 free, 100 free)

Michigan
Dylan Bosch (200 fly)
Connor Jaeger (1650 free)

Southern California
Cristian Quintero (500 free)
800 free relay

Texas
Michael Hixon (1M diving, 3M diving)

Team Standings
1. Califoria 468.5
2. Texas 417.5
3. Florida 387
4. Michigan 310
5. Georgia 259
6. Auburn 230
7. Arizona 198.5
8. USC 182
9. Stanford 155
10. Indiana 141

11. Louisville 129
12. Alabama 121.5
13. NC State 113.5
14. Florida State 105
15. Tennessee 98
16. Missouri 95
17. Penn State 63
18. Ohio State 54
19. UNLV 50
20. Virginia Tech 46

21. Duke 36
22. Minnesota 29
23. West Virginia 28
23. Arizona State 28
25. Miami 26
26. Virginia 23
27. Purdue 21
28. Hawaii 16
29. Northwestern 15
30. Notre Dame 14

31. Navy 12
32. Western Kentucky 11
33. Wisconsin 10
33. South Carolina 10
35. Pennsylvania 9
35. Utah 9
37. Kentucky 8
38. North Carolina 7
38. LSU 7
40. Columbia 5
40. Denver 5

42. Darmouth 4
42. Harvard 4
44. Wyoming 3
44. Texas A&M 3
46. Cal Poly 2
47. Georgia Tech 1.5
48. CSU Bakersfield 1

Total Individual Titles
165 – Michigan
147 – Stanford
118 – Ohio State
117 – Southern California
105 – Texas
80 – Indiana
79 – California
60 – Yale
59 – Auburn
52 – Arizona
43 – Florida
42 – Tennessee
41 – UCLA
31 – Northwestern
28 – Miami (Fla.)
28 – SMU
22 – Michigan State
22 – Princeton
21 – Iowa
19 – Georgia
16 – Minnesota
13 – Rutgers
12 – Alabama
12 – Washington
10 – Arizona State
10 – Harvard
9 – Long Beach State
8 – Columbia
8 – Navy
7 – Illinois
7 – North Carolina State
7 – Purdue
6 – Florida State
4 – Brigham Young
4—Duke
4 – La Salle
4—Louisville
4 – North Carolina
4 – Virginia
3 – Cincinnati
3 – Texas-Arlington
3 – Wayne State
3 – Williams
3 – Wisconsin
2 – Arkansas
2 – Dartmouth
2 – LSU
2 – Oklahoma
1 – Air Force
1 – Amherst
1 – Army
1 – Brown
1 – UC Santa Barbara
1 – Cornell
1 – Cortland State
1 – Denver
1 – Florida Atlantic
1 – Franklin & Marshall
1 – Georgia Tech
1 – Houston
1 – Miami (Ohio)
1 – Nebraska
1 – Oregon
1 – Penn State
1 – Utah
1 – Villanova
1 – Wesleyan

(Note: Totals include co-championships. Relay victories count one for each event.)

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