NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships: Texas Tops 400 Free Relay; California Defends Team Title

Visit Swimming World's Event Landing Page for complete coverage of the meet. Click Here

FEDERAL WAY, Washington, March 24. THE Texas foursome of Dax Hill, Clay Youngquist, Austin Surhoff and Jimmy Feigen captured the 400-yard freestyle relay at the NCAA Division I Men's Championships. Meanwhile, California finished second en route to defending its team title from last year.

Texas won in 2:49.83 to give the Longhorns an eighth victory in the event's history, giving them the title for the first time since Nate Dusing, Ian Crocker, Tom Hannan and Jamie Rauch won in 2001 with a 2:49.80. Other Longhorn triumphs occurred in 1981, 88-91, 94 and 2001.

California's Tyler Messerschmidt, Shayne Fleming, Fabio Gimondi and Tom Shields took second in 2:50.34 to put the exclamation mark on California's team title defense. Along with the women's back-to-back wins, California joins just three other schools to have won both the men's and women's NCAA Division I team titles in back-to-back years. Stanford owns the record with wins in 1992, 93 and 94 from both squads, coached by Skip Kenney and Richard Quick. Texas also did it in 1990 and 1991, while Auburn did it twice from 2003-04 and 2006-07.

Auburn's Drew Modrov, Karl Krug, James Disney-May and Marcelo Chierighini tied California for second with a matching 2:50.34. Southern California (2:50.56), Stanford (2:50.63), Arizona (2:53.61), Florida State (2:54.81) and Texas A&M (2:55.42) also swam in the final heat of the meet.

Michigan's quartet of Bruno Ortiz, Miguel Ortiz, Sean Fletcher and Dan Madwed won the B final in 2:52.23. Louisville (2:53.03), Iowa (2:54.22), Virginia (2:54.27), Florida (2:54.34), North Carolina (2:54.74), Minnesota (2:54.85) and Harvard (2:55.18) also swam in the consolation heat.

California closed out the meet with a victorious 535.5 points, including six total titles this year. Dave Durden won his second career coaching title, joining Randy Reese and Cal head coach emeritus Nort Thornton in the rankings as two-time winners.

Texas placed second with 491 points, while Stanford (426.5), Arizona (396) and Michigan (271) made the top five. Auburn (254.5), Southern California (192), Florida (157), Louisville (156) and Indiana (140) placed sixth through 10th. Georgia (106.5), Ohio State (106), Texas A&M (97), North Carolina (74.5) and Virginia (65) rounded out the top 15.

CSCAA Awards
Diver of the Meet: Drew Livingston, Texas
Diving Coach of the Year: Matt Scoggin, Texas
Swimmer of the Meet: Tom Shields, California
Swimming Coach of the Year: Dave Durden, California

Editorial coverage of all NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships is brought to you by our sponsor Colorado Time Systems.

Swimming World's NCAA Division I Men's Championships Notes Package Sponsored by NISCA

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x