NCAA Division I Men’s Championships: California Wins 400 Medley Relay With Pool Record; Texas Takes Day One Lead

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COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 26. CALIFORNIA finished the night with a second relay conquest, this time with a pool record in the 400 medley relay.

Cal's Guy Barnea (46.49), Damir Dugonjic (50.91), Tom Shields (44.54) and Nathan Adrian (40.89) crushed the field in the event with a pool record time of 3:02.83. That effort demolished its 3:05.51 set during prelims. The win is Cal's third ever in the event with back-to-back triumphs in 1978 and 1979. Peter Rocca, D. Graham Smith, Par Arvidsson and Jim Fairbank won with a 3:18.26 in 1978, while Rocca, Smith, Arvidsson and Pelle Holmetz clocked a 3:15.22 to win in 1979.

"It really feels good," Adrian said. "We came here to do our best, even if we came in somewhat as underdogs. Our team is really together. It feels great to accomplish what we did today."

Auburn's Pascal Wollach (46.20), Adam Klein (51.99), Tyler McGill (45.39) and Gideon Louw (41.66) took second in 3:05.24, 2.41 seconds behind Cal. Ohio State and Stanford own the largest margins of victory in the event with matching wins of 4.40 seconds. OSU beat Princeton, 3:37.6 to 3:42.0, in 1962, while Stanford trumped Michigan, 3:07.28 to 3:11.68, in 1995.

Stanford's Eugene Godsoe (44.93), Curtis Lovelace (52.06), Bobby Bollier (46.88) and Robert Andrews (41.54) rounded out the top three in 3:05.41. Notably, Godsoe moved up 13th to sixth all time in the 100 back with a sterling leadoff of 44.93. He joined just five other swimmers to have eclipsed 45 seconds in the event.

Texas picked up big points with a fifth-place 3:06.08 from Hill Taylor, Scott Spann, Ricky Berens and Jimmy Feigen. The finish pushed Texas to a day one tally of 145 points to hold a slim lead over California. Cal owned second heading into day two with 139 points, while Florida (118) and Auburn (114.5) were third and fourth. Stanford (106) held fifth at the end of the day.

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