Ian Finnerty Takes on 100 Breast Title Defense With Pink Goggles (VIDEO INTERVIEW)

Editorial content for the 2019 NCAA DI Championship coverage is sponsored by SwimOutlet.com. See full event coverage.

Ian Finnerty won his second straight NCAA championship in the 100 breast, swimming the second-ever sub-50-second race in the event, behind his own American record from last year’s NCAA championships. Afterwards, Finnerty spoke about his emotions involving the race and his own team.

Finnerty explained how much of his training this season has been geared towards the 200 breast instead of the 100 breast and how he thinks that affected him in Friday’s final. Finnerty also discussed the emotional impact of Vini Lanza’s 100 fly title for Indiana, how long course has factored into his training and how that will change and why he has been wearing pink goggles all meet.

Full recap from 100 breast:

Indiana senior Ian Finnerty successfully defended the 100 breast on Friday night at the 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships with a 49.85. He was off his all-time record of 49.69 from last season but he won back-to-back titles with that swim, remaining the only man to break 50 seconds in the event and the first to do it twice.

Finnerty got some pressure from fellow senior Carsten Vissering of USC as he was a 50.30 for second place. Vissering was the early leader with a 23.29 the first 50 but Finnerty came home in a 26.44, the only man under 27 seconds the second 50 to win the event.

Vissering moved up to fourth all-time while Max McHugh is now fifth.

Also of note in the A-Final, there were three freshmen with Minnesota’s Max McHugh (50.52), Cal’s Reece Whitley (51.11) and Indiana’s Zane Backes (51.35) all placing third, fourth and fifth. As if the American breaststroke scene couldn’t get any more crowded, it just got a little more tight with the three freshmen on the rise.

Georgia Tech’s Caio Pumputis (51.38), Louisville’s Evgenii Somov (51.77) and Missouri’s Jordan O’Brien (52.11) also placed in the A-Final.

Indiana now has three NCAA titles in the 100 breast as Finnerty joins himself (2018) and Don McKenzie (1969) as winners of the event for the Hoosiers.

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