Men’s NCAA Div I. Championships, Finals: Arizona Triumphs in the 400 Medley Relay as Lochte Notches His Second American Record of the Night

By Phillip Whitten

ATLANTA, Ga. March 23. ON paper, the 400 yard medley relay figured to pit top qualifier Arizona against Northwestern – which has the fastest first three-quarters of this event in the field – and the usual suspects: Florida, Auburn and defending champion Stanford. And that’s the way it played out.

Florida took the lead on the backstroke on the strength of Ryan Lochte’s American record 44.60 (split: 21.52), which erased Neil Walker’s 44.92. Northwestern took over the lead when Mike Alexandrov split 52.49 for the breaststroke.

Arizona’s Albert Subirats split a sizzling 44.70 for the fly, while Northwestern’s Kyle Bubolz split 45.18, to bring the Wildcats (Arizona variety) to within four-tenths of a second of the Wildcats (Northwestern variety).

The first 50 yards of the final leg saw Arizona’s Adam Ritter and Northwestern’s Ben Dexter battle head-to-head. But Dexter jammed his turn and Ritter emerged a body length ahead. On the final 50, both Auburn and Stanford passed a struggling Northwestern. Ritter anchored the Zonies in 42.23, while Stanford’s Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner had the fastest freestyle split, 41.72.

Arizona touched in 3:06.08, comfortably ahead of Auburn (3:07.43) and Stanford (3:07.96) with Northwestern fourth in 3:08.10.

Indiana edged Cal, 3:09.01 to 3:09.28, to win the consolation final.

Event 6 Men 400 Yard Medley Relay
=======================================================================
NCAA: N 3:04.47 2003 Texas, Texas
American: A 3:02.94 2006 Longhorn Aquatics, Longhorn Aquatic
US Open: O 3:02.94 2006 Longhorn Aquatics, Longhorn Aquatic
GTAC Pool: P 3:07.75 3/23/2006 ARIZONA, ARIZONA
N THOMAN, I BARNS, A SUBIRATS, N NILO
School Prelims Finals Points
=======================================================================
=== Championship ===

1 Arizona 3:07.75 3:06.08P 40
1) Thoman, Nick SO 2) Barns, Ivan FR
3) Subirats, Albert SO 4) Ritter, Adam SO
22.48 46.49 (46.49)
1:10.70 (24.21) 1:39.15 (52.66)
1:59.73 (20.58) 2:23.85 (44.70)
2:43.91 (20.06) 3:06.08 (42.23)
2 Auburn 3:09.53 3:07.43P 34
1) Van Wie, Doug SR 2) Wike, James JR
3) Puninski, Alexei SO 4) Cielo, Cesar FR
22.33 46.48 (46.48)
1:10.96 (24.48) 1:39.57 (53.09)
1:59.81 (20.24) 2:25.30 (45.73)
2:45.25 (19.95) 3:07.43 (42.13)
3 Stanford 3:09.56 3:07.96 32
1) Sun, Hongzhe JR 2) Kornfeld, Paul FR
3) Dunford, Jason FR 4) Wildman-Tobriner, BE JR
22.55 46.42 (46.42)
1:10.78 (24.36) 1:39.32 (52.90)
2:00.51 (21.19) 2:26.24 (46.92)
2:45.83 (19.59) 3:07.96 (41.72)
4 Northwestern 3:08.19 3:08.10 30
1) Grevers, Matt JR 2) Alexandrov, Mike JR
3) Bubolz, Kyle SO 4) Dexter, Ben SR
21.94 45.78 (45.78)
1:09.92 (24.14) 1:38.27 (52.49)
1:58.44 (20.17) 2:23.45 (45.18)
2:43.98 (20.53) 3:08.10 (44.65)
5 Texas 3:09.59 3:08.42 28
1) Sacco, Thomas JR 2) Lowe, Matthew SO
3) Rohleder, Daniel SO 4) Weber-Gale, Garrett JR
22.80 47.03 (47.03)
1:11.68 (24.65) 1:39.88 (52.85)
2:01.12 (21.24) 2:26.58 (46.70)
2:45.90 (19.32) 3:08.42 (41.84)
6 Southern Cal. 3:10.32 3:09.60 26
1) Bodrogi, Viktor JR 2) Flaskay, Mihaly JR
3) Masson, Sam JR 4) Mellouli, Ous SR
23.15 48.34 (48.34)
1:12.72 (24.38) 1:41.03 (52.69)
2:02.08 (21.05) 2:26.65 (45.62)
2:46.84 (20.19) 3:09.60 (42.95)
7 Florida 3:09.21 3:09.95 24
1) Lochte, Ryan SR 2) Ally, Bradley FR
3) Salatta, Lucas FR 4) Penniman, Daniel SO
21.52 44.60 (44.60)
1:09.91 (25.31) 1:39.43 (54.83)
2:00.78 (21.35) 2:26.10 (46.67)
2:46.56 (20.46) 3:09.95 (43.85)
8 Minnesota 3:10.78 3:15.91 22
1) Plummer, David SO 2) Lee-To, Colin FR
3) Berve, Dan JR 4) Delac, Mario JR
22.72 46.90 (46.90)
1:12.93 (26.03) 1:43.25 (56.35)
2:04.93 (21.68) 2:30.97 (47.72)
2:51.85 (20.88) 3:15.91 (44.94)

=== Consolation ===

9 Indiana 3:11.30 3:09.01 18
1) Hesen, Ben SO 2) Swander, Kevin SR
3) Walkotten, Nick FR 4) Patrick, Todd SO
22.45 46.63 (46.63)
1:10.48 (23.85) 1:38.45 (51.82)
2:00.28 (21.83) 2:25.99 (47.54)
2:45.95 (19.96) 3:09.01 (43.02)
10 Cal. Berkeley 3:10.93 3:09.28 14
1) Russell, David FR 2) Barbosa, Henrique SR
3) Godec, Jernej SO 4) Tilly, Jonas JR
23.38 48.34 (48.34)
1:13.05 (24.71) 1:40.85 (52.51)
2:01.49 (20.64) 2:26.69 (45.84)
2:46.44 (19.75) 3:09.28 (42.59)
11 Michigan 3:12.86 3:11.35 12
1) Dejong, Chris SR 2) Burtch, Grant
3) Tarwater, Davis SR 4) Vanderkaay, Peter SR
23.47 47.61 (47.61)
1:12.88 (25.27) 1:42.71 (55.10)
2:03.82 (21.11) 2:28.35 (45.64)
2:48.86 (20.51) 3:11.35 (43.00)
12 Tennessee 3:12.38 3:12.57 10
1) Boswell, Brad JR 2) Huston, Kiel SR
3) Alesi, Octavio SO 4) Gustafson, Tyler SR
22.94 47.79 (47.79)
1:13.14 (25.35) 1:42.27 (54.48)
2:03.66 (21.39) 2:29.31 (47.04)
2:49.86 (20.55) 3:12.57 (43.26)
13 Alabama 3:14.56 3:13.81 8
1) Perry, Chris FR 2) Polyakov, Vlad JR
3) Bitsakis, Spiros SR 4) Erasmus, Darren SR
23.99 50.11 (50.11)
1:14.48 (24.37) 1:42.29 (52.18)
2:04.44 (22.15) 2:30.58 (48.29)
2:50.73 (20.15) 3:13.81 (43.23)
14 Georgia 3:14.84 3:13.94 6
1) Stovall, Gil SO 2) Versfeld, Neil SO
3) Verhoef, Peter SR 4) Bibliowicz, Nathan SO
23.72 48.65 (48.65)
1:14.10 (25.45) 1:43.82 (55.17)
2:04.85 (21.03) 2:30.14 (46.32)
2:50.75 (20.61) 3:13.94 (43.80)
15 Southern Method. 3:15.62 3:14.01 4
1) Clark, Ian JR 2) Hetland, Alex SO
3) Vrtovec, Luka FR 4) Nylin, Per SR
23.54 48.71 (48.71)
1:13.06 (24.35) 1:42.17 (53.46)
2:04.06 (21.89) 2:30.22 (48.05)
2:45.33 (15.11) 3:14.01 (43.79)
— Virginia 3:15.19 DQ
Early take-off swimmer #3
1) Stahl, Bryan SO 2) Rogulj, Vanja JR
3) Hirniak, Stefan JR 4) McCoy, Ethan SR

=== Preliminaries ===

17 Kentucky 3:15.91
18 West Virginia 3:17.35
19 Florida State 3:17.42
20 Purdue 3:17.57
21 Texas A&M 3:17.63
— N. Carolina St. DFS

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