NCAA Men’s Championships: 200 Medley Relay Produces Five Splits Faster Than Ever; Farris Leads Blistering 200 Free Splits

Adam Chaney -- Photo Courtesy: Luke Jamroz Photography

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NCAA Men’s Championships: 200 Medley Relay Produces Five Splits Faster Than Ever; Farris Leads Blistering 200 Free Splits

For the first time this year, the 200 medley relay is the first event at the NCAA Championships, held Wednesday night (along with the 800 freestyle relay) before individual racing kicks off Thursday morning. That setup produced a downright historic performance at the men’s meet Wednesday evening. Florida won with the fastest time in history while Texas was also under the previous all-time best. Before that, in the second-to-last heat, two teams tied for first place — with both going four tenths faster than the overall winning time last year!

On backstroke alone, three men swam those 50 yards quicker than any other human ever has. The No. 1 50 back performance had belonged to Ryan Murphy since 2016. That was Murphy’s junior year NCAA Championships, when he set American records in the 100 and 200-yard back that still stand, and it was just four months before Murphy achieved a gold medal sweep of the backstroke events at the Rio Olympics. But Murphy’s 20.20 fell by the wayside in heat three as Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger touched in 20.08, and NC State’s Kacper Stokowski was just behind at 20.16.

A few minutes later, Florida’s Adam Chaney also surpassed Murphy with his 20.19 leg. “It is definitely special to have three guys break that mark,” Chaney said after the race. “You notice splits on the board but I just tried to focus on my race. I definitely think it was crazy that in five minutes, we all broke that mark.”

Seeliger and Chaney are both sophomores while Stokowski is a junior, so it’s not crazy to think that the first ever 19-second backstroke split could be in the cards over the next few years. More immediately, get set for some impressive performances in the 100 backstroke Friday, with Seeliger, Stokowski and Chaney all set to be in the mix. The field will also include three others who have swum 44s this season (Indiana’s Brendan Burns, Ohio State’s Hunter Armstrong and Stanford’s Leon MacAlister) and three others who went that fast last year (Cal’s Destin Lasco, Texas’ Alvin Jiang and Louisville’s Nick Albiero). Oh, and there’s also the third-fastest performer in history, Dean Farris, fresh off a 20.36 leadoff split Wednesday night, a mark that sits ninth all-time.

Not enough? Texas’ Caspar Corbeau delivered a 22.55 breaststroke split, three hundredths better than any other in history, and Corbeau has been set up all season to contend for national crowns in the 100 and 200 breast. We did not get to compare Corbeau against his top rival in the event, Max McHugh, since McHugh’s Minnesota Golden Gophers did not have a 200 medley relay, but Cal’s Liam Bell (22.71) and Alabama’s Derek Maas (22.80) were also impressive.

On butterfly, it was Florida’s Eric Friese who matched Joseph Schooling’s 19.36 from 2016 as the quickest split ever, while Stanford’s Andrei Minakov was 19.42. So that’s two of the three fastest splits ever in one race, and NC State’s Nyls Korstanje (19.55) was not too shabby either.

The anchor leg, on the other hand, did not produce anywhere close to the fastest split ever, but that can be easily explained: Caeleb Dressel recorded 17-second splits a mere 10 times during his legendary career at Florida, with Vladimir Morozov (17.86) and Kristian Gkolomeev (18.00) the next-highest performers on the list. But Texas transfer Cameron Auchinachie was 18.08 tonight, securing his spot as the fourth-fastest relay performer ever.

No 200 Freestyle Record But 21 Swimmers Under 1:32

In the second heat of the 800 free relay, all eyes were on Harvard’s relay to see if Farris would challenge his 200 free American record of 1:29.15 on the leadoff leg, but the Crimson instead used Farris on the second leg. He split 1:29.85, although he certainly was pointing toward a quicker split before falling off on the last 50. Still, after a disappointing Olympic Trials and a college season where Farris was off his best times, his two relay efforts Wednesday were a good sign for his sprint freestyles and 100 back to come.

The only other swimmer under 1:30 Wednesday was Arizona State’s Leon Marchand, who swam a 1:29.96 on the anchor leg to clobber his previous best split and move the Sun Devils up into fifth. If Marchand is faster now than he was at Pac-12s, when he recorded the quickest times in the country in both IM events, the NCAA records in those races cannot be safe.

Relay leadoffs in the top heat can serve as a preview for the individual 200 free, and it was Texas’ Drew Kibler winning that battle over Florida’s Kieran Smith, Georgia’s Matt Sates and ASU’s Grant House. Three of those four swam 1:30s (with House at 1:31.01), but it was particularly surprising to see Smith, the second-fastest 200 freestyler ever with his 1:29.48, finish more than a second outside his best time. House was also off compared to his 1:30.23 from Pac-12s.

Also hitting 1:30 for their splits were Georgia’s Luca Urlando and Texas’ Luke Hobson. Urlando beat his split from the SEC Championships by 1.64 seconds, so that suggests big performances from this sophomore in the 200 IM and in the butterfly events (plus in future efforts in the long course 200-meter free after Urlando scratched from the final of the event at Olympic Trials). Hobson, meanwhile, was a half-second faster than in his breakout performance at the Minnesota Invitational in December. He’s seeded second for Thursday’s 500 free, which features a deep field full of big names, but he’s a real contender there.

Zoom out further, and you will find 21 splits under 1:32 from this relay. In comparison, last year saw just eight. Of course, not all of these swimmers will compete in the individual 200 free, but this still sets up for an incredibly quick competition in that event Friday. Last year, it was considered amazing when it took under 1:33 to qualify for the consolation final. This year, some swimmers who hit 1:32s will almost certainly miss the top-16, and it’s not out of the question that it will take 1:31 just to make the championship heat.

Team Scores Through Day One:

  1. Texas                              74   2. Florida                            64
  3. California                         61   4. NC State                           57
  5. Stanford                           54   5. Arizona St                         54
  7. Louisville                         46   8. Georgia                            34
  9. Alabama                            30  10. Virginia Tech                      28
 11. Harvard                            22  11. Virginia                           22
 11. Indiana                            22  14. Ohio St                            18
 15. Michigan                           14  16. Arizona                            12
 17. Auburn                              6  18. Utah                                2

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