Texas Smashes NCAA, American Record in 800 Free Relay, Townley Haas Splits 1:29.66 (RACE VIDEO)

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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800 Free Relay

The Texas Longhorns won the 800 free relay in front of their home fans in the fastest 800 free relay ever with a 6:05.08 on Wednesday night at the 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin, Texas. The team of Drew Kibler (1:32.06), Austin Katz (1:31.45), Jeff Newkirk (1:31.91) and Townley Haas (1:29.66) swam the fastest time ever as they broke NC State’s 6:05.31 record from last season.

Since moving the 800 free relay to Wednesday night in 2016, the NCAA record has been broken every year. The record in 2015 was a 6:09.85. That would have been sixth place in 2019.

The time is also a new American Record for Texas, breaking the Longhorns’ 6:07.59 from last year.

Texas’ Haas had the fastest ever split on the anchor leg as no one had broken 1:30 from a relay start before.

The Cal Golden Bears were off to an early lead with Andrew Seliskar (1:30.14) leading off for a new best time as he is now the fourth fastest performer ever. The Golden Bears finished in second in the fastest seeded heat but were third after NC State swam a 6:06.63 in heat two.

The Wolfpack, after winning the last two relays the last two years, was second with Andreas Vazaios (1:32.22), Coleman Stewart (1:30.61), Jacob Molacek (1:31.91) and Justin Ress (1:31.89).

Cal finished in third at 6:07.31 with Seliskar (1:30.14), Bryce Mefford (1:32.57), Trenton Julian (1:31.74) and Mike Thomas (1:32.86). They held off a tough fight from Indiana, who finished in fourth at 6:07.35.

Indiana’s Zach Apple (1:30.34) led off the Hoosiers with a new best time and is now fifth all-time in the individual 200 free.

Also in the race, Harvard junior Dean Farris (1:29.15) had the fastest time ever on the lead-off for Harvard’s heat two relay as the Crimson placed seventh. It is the first time Harvard has had an All-American relay in 21 years.

Florida (6:09.14), Louisville (6:11.36), Harvard (6:11.73) and Virginia (6:12.28) also placed in the top eight.

Texas now has 14 NCAA titles in the 800 free relay. The 2019 team joins the teams from 1988-91, 1998-01, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2016 as winners of the event for the Longhorns.

All-Time List:

  1. Dean Farris, Harvard, 1:29.15 (2019)
  2. Townley Haas, Texas, 1:29.50 (2018)
  3. Blake Pieroni, Indiana, 1:29.63 (2018)
  4. Andrew Seliskar, Cal, 1:30.14 (2019)
  5. Zach Apple, Indiana, 1:30.34 (2019)
  6. Dylan Carter, USC, 1:30.95 (2017)
  7. Simon Burnett, Arizona, 1:31.20 (2006)
  8. Mikel Schreuders, Missouri, 1:31.27 (2019)

 Event 1  Men 800 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
         NCAA: N 6:05.31  21-Mar-18 NC State
                          A Vazaios, R Held, J Molacek, J Ress
         Meet: M 6:05.31  21-Mar-18 NC State
                          A Vazaios, R Held, J Molacek, J Ress
     American: A 6:07.59  21-Mar-18 Texas
                          T Haas, J Newkirk, J Roberts, A Katz
   U. S. Open: O 6:05.31  21-Mar-18 NC State
                          A Vazaios, R Held, J Molacek, J Ress
         Pool: P 6:10.55  27-Feb-08 Texas
                          Walters, McGinnis, Klueh, Berens
    School                                 Seed     Finals Points 
==================================================================================
  1 Texas                               6:11.84    6:05.08N  40  
     1) Kibler, Drew FR               2) r:0.18 Katz, Austin SO       
     3) r:0.34 Newkirk, Jeff SR       4) r:0.17 Haas, Townley SR      
    r:+0.61  20.56        43.59 (43.59)
      1:07.38 (1:07.38)   1:32.06 (1:32.06)
        1:53.06 (21.00)     2:16.15 (44.09)
      2:39.73 (1:07.67)   3:03.51 (1:31.45)
        3:24.74 (21.23)     3:47.65 (44.14)
      4:11.31 (1:07.80)   4:35.42 (1:31.91)
        4:55.43 (20.01)     5:17.81 (42.39)
      5:40.98 (1:05.56)   6:05.08 (1:29.66)
  2 NC State                            6:16.48    6:06.63P  34  
     1) Vazaios, Andreas SR           2) r:0.16 Stewart, Coleman JR   
     3) r:0.21 Molacek, Jacob SR      4) r:0.25 Ress, Justin SR       
    r:+0.70  21.87        45.00 (45.00)
      1:08.37 (1:08.37)   1:32.22 (1:32.22)
        1:52.48 (20.26)     2:14.94 (42.72)
      2:38.17 (1:05.95)   3:02.83 (1:30.61)
        3:22.98 (20.15)     3:45.91 (43.08)
      4:10.03 (1:07.20)   4:34.74 (1:31.91)
        4:55.18 (20.44)     5:18.36 (43.62)
      5:42.25 (1:07.51)   6:06.63 (1:31.89)
  3 California                          6:10.94    6:07.31A  32  
     1) Seliskar, Andrew SR           2) r:0.32 Mefford, Bryce SO     
     3) r:0.19 Julian, Trenton SO     4) r:0.20 Thomas, Mike SR       
    r:+0.61  20.49        43.00 (43.00)
      1:06.11 (1:06.11)   1:30.14 (1:30.14)
        1:50.75 (20.61)     2:13.77 (43.63)
      2:37.66 (1:07.52)   3:02.71 (1:32.57)
        3:23.61 (20.90)     3:46.90 (44.19)
      4:10.59 (1:07.88)   4:34.45 (1:31.74)
        4:55.18 (20.73)     5:18.31 (43.86)
      5:42.50 (1:08.05)   6:07.31 (1:32.86)
  4 Indiana                             6:11.02    6:07.35P  30  
     1) Apple, Zach SR                2) r:0.15 Lanza, Vini SR        
     3) r:0.37 Samy, Mohamed JR       4) r:0.18 Finnerty, Ian SR      
    r:+0.61  20.55        42.94 (42.94)
      1:06.19 (1:06.19)   1:30.34 (1:30.34)
        1:51.24 (20.90)     2:14.72 (44.38)
      2:38.63 (1:08.29)   3:02.40 (1:32.06)
        3:23.02 (20.62)     3:46.39 (43.99)
      4:10.36 (1:07.96)   4:34.63 (1:32.23)
        4:55.66 (21.03)     5:18.98 (44.35)
      5:43.03 (1:08.40)   6:07.35 (1:32.72)
  5 Florida                             6:10.50    6:09.14P  28  
     1) Baqlah, Khader JR             2) r:0.18 Smith, Kieran FR      
     3) r:0.45 Freeman, Trey FR       4) r:0.27 Rooney, Maxime JR     
    r:+0.69  21.13        44.06 (44.06)
      1:07.77 (1:07.77)   1:32.32 (1:32.32)
        1:52.91 (20.59)     2:16.47 (44.15)
      2:40.26 (1:07.94)   3:03.96 (1:31.64)
        3:25.62 (21.66)     3:49.19 (45.23)
      4:13.52 (1:09.56)   4:37.54 (1:33.58)
        4:57.87 (20.33)     5:20.56 (43.02)
      5:44.14 (1:06.60)   6:09.14 (1:31.60)
  6 Louisville                          6:11.84    6:11.36   26  
     1) Albiero, Nicolas SO           2) r:0.20 Harting, Zach SR      
     3) r:0.29 Piszczorowicz, Bart FR 4) r:0.05 Paulson, Colton FR    
    r:+0.63  21.30        44.85 (44.85)
      1:08.86 (1:08.86)   1:33.47 (1:33.47)
        1:54.26 (20.79)     2:17.72 (44.25)
      2:41.04 (1:07.57)   3:04.61 (1:31.14)
        3:25.82 (21.21)     3:49.56 (44.95)
      4:14.12 (1:09.51)   4:38.51 (1:33.90)
        4:59.92 (21.41)     5:23.80 (45.29)
      5:47.52 (1:09.01)   6:11.36 (1:32.85)
  7 Harvard                             6:15.38    6:11.73   24  
     1) Farris, Dean JR               2) r:0.32 Novak, Brennan SR     
     3) r:0.37 Reihman, Mahlon SO     4) r:0.21 Rawls, Corban SO      
    r:+0.67  20.56        42.89 (42.89)
      1:05.43 (1:05.43)   1:29.15 (1:29.15)
        1:50.29 (21.14)     2:13.78 (44.63)
      2:38.09 (1:08.94)   3:02.92 (1:33.77)
        3:23.97 (21.05)     3:47.40 (44.48)
      4:11.92 (1:09.00)   4:37.31 (1:34.39)
        4:58.67 (21.36)     5:22.32 (45.01)
      5:46.94 (1:09.63)   6:11.73 (1:34.42)
  8 Virginia                            6:16.00    6:12.28   22  
     1) Baker, Ryan JR                2) r:0.10 Schilling, Sam SO     
     3) r:0.13 Clark, Joe JR          4) r:0.29 Wozencraft, Cooper SO 
    r:+0.61  21.67        45.51 (45.51)
      1:09.45 (1:09.45)   1:33.50 (1:33.50)
        1:54.20 (20.70)     2:17.70 (44.20)
      2:41.90 (1:08.40)   3:06.63 (1:33.13)
        3:27.69 (21.06)     3:51.12 (44.49)
      4:15.04 (1:08.41)   4:39.50 (1:32.87)
        5:00.55 (21.05)     5:23.76 (44.26)
      5:47.73 (1:08.23)   6:12.28 (1:32.78)
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 1                       
 
  1. Texas                              40   2. NC State                           34
  3. California                         32   4. Indiana                            30
  5. Florida                            28   6. Louisville                         26
  7. Harvard                            24   8. Virginia                           22
  9. Arizona St                         18  10. Missouri                           13
 10. Ohio St                            13  12. Arizona                            10
 13. Texas A&M                           8  14. Michigan                            6
 15. Stanford                            4  16. Georgia Tech                        2
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Teri Mortimer Lavo
Teri Mortimer Lavo
5 years ago

Why wasn’t the women’s ncaa’s televised? Will the men’s be televised?

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John Fellows
John Fellows
5 years ago

Our boy, Zach Harting, swam a great 200 split on the UL Cardinal relay. 1:31.14 says he’s going have a great NCAA close out as a Senior. #irememberhimwhen. #GoZach!

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