NC State Dominates NCAA 800 Free Relay in NCAA Record-Time; Texas Sets American Record

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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The North Carolina State Wolfpack opened up the men’s NCAA championships with a dominant win in the 800 free relay, the only event on the opening night program.

Ryan Held led off in 1:31.37, improving to sixth all-time in the event. The Wolfpack were in second place at that point, but Andreas Vazaios took the lead with his split of 1:32.23. Justin Ress extended the lead with a 1:32.26, and Soren Dahl did not allow anyone, including Texas’ Townley Haas, to get close, finishing with a 1:30.67 split.

NC State finished in 6:06.53, demolishing Texas’ NCAA and U.S. Open record of 6:08.03.

Texas finished second in 6:08.61, a time which will stand as a new American record as NC State’s Dahl originates from Denmark. Jack Conger led off in 1:31.54, tied for seventh all-time in the event, and he was followed by Jeff Newkirk (1:33.23), Clark Smith (1:33.40) and Townley Haas, who anchored in 1:30.54, the fastest split in history.

Florida’s Jan Switkowski (1:32.44), Maxime Rooney (1:32.67), Mitch D’Arrigo (1:32.73) and Mark Szaranek (1:31.46) finished third in 6:09.30. Also getting under the 6:10-barrier was Cal, who finished in 6:09.56 with Long Gutierrez (1:33.31), Andrew Seliskar (1:31.58), Michael Jensen (1:32.59) and Ryan Murphy (1:32.08).

Southern California finished fifth in 6:10.97 after Dylan Carter led off in 1:30.95. At the time, that swim ranked second all-time in the 200 free, but it was surpassed one heat later by Blake Pieroni, who led off in 1:30.87. Only Haas has been faster at 1:30.46. Indiana ended up finishing ninth in 6:13.45.

Also finishing in the top eight were Georgia (6:12.54), Stanford (6:12.66) and Louisville (6:12.81).

  1 NC State                            6:09.82    6:06.53N  40  
     1) Held, Ryan JR                 2) r:0.44 Vazaios, Andreas JR   
     3) r:0.21 Ress, Justin SO        4) r:0.37 Dahl, Soeren SR       
    r:+0.63  20.73        43.97 (43.97)
      1:07.46 (1:07.46)   1:31.37 (1:31.37)
        1:52.49 (21.12)     2:15.92 (44.55)
      2:39.79 (1:08.42)   3:03.60 (1:32.23)
        3:24.43 (20.83)     3:48.20 (44.60)
      4:12.18 (1:08.58)   4:35.86 (1:32.26)
        4:56.59 (20.73)     5:19.83 (43.97)
      5:42.95 (1:07.09)   6:06.53 (1:30.67)
  2 Texas                               6:12.59    6:08.61A  34  
     1) Conger, Jack SR               2) r:0.21 Newkirk, Jeff SO      
     3) r:0.27 Smith, Clark SR        4) r:0.16 Haas, Townley SO      
    r:+0.66  20.83        43.74 (43.74)
      1:07.29 (1:07.29)   1:31.54 (1:31.54)
        1:52.72 (21.18)     2:16.02 (44.48)
      2:40.03 (1:08.49)   3:04.79 (1:33.25)
        3:25.99 (21.20)     3:49.65 (44.86)
      4:13.88 (1:09.09)   4:38.19 (1:33.40)
        4:58.39 (20.20)     5:21.20 (43.01)
      5:44.77 (1:06.58)   6:08.61 (1:30.42)
  3 Florida                             6:12.18    6:09.30   32  
     1) Switkowski, Jan JR            2) r:0.16 Rooney, Maxime FR     
     3) r:0.19 D'Arrigo, Mitch SR     4) r:0.40 Szaranek, Mark JR     
    r:+0.63  21.20        44.27 (44.27)
      1:07.90 (1:07.90)   1:32.44 (1:32.44)
        1:53.33 (20.89)     2:16.89 (44.45)
      2:40.68 (1:08.24)   3:05.11 (1:32.67)
        3:26.61 (21.50)     3:50.18 (45.07)
      4:13.97 (1:08.86)   4:37.84 (1:32.73)
        4:58.75 (20.91)     5:21.88 (44.04)
      5:45.41 (1:07.57)   6:09.30 (1:31.46)
  4 California                          6:12.07    6:09.56   30  
     1) Gutierrez, Long SR            2) r:0.32 Seliskar, Andrew SO   
     3) r:0.27 Jensen, Michael FR     4) r:0.21 Murphy, Ryan SR       
    r:+0.64  21.23        44.12 (44.12)
      1:08.27 (1:08.27)   1:33.31 (1:33.31)
        1:53.68 (20.37)     2:16.78 (43.47)
      2:40.33 (1:07.02)   3:04.89 (1:31.58)
        3:25.72 (20.83)     3:49.16 (44.27)
      4:12.92 (1:08.03)   4:37.48 (1:32.59)
        4:58.16 (20.68)     5:21.23 (43.75)
      5:44.76 (1:07.28)   6:09.56 (1:32.08)
  5 Southern Cali                       6:15.34    6:10.97   28  
     1) Carter, Dylan JR              2) r:0.25 Mulcare, Patrick SO   
     3) r:0.18 Malone, Reed SR        4) r:0.41 Condorelli, Santo JR  
    r:+0.59  21.00        43.79 (43.79)
      1:07.14 (1:07.14)   1:30.95 (1:30.95)
        1:52.14 (21.19)     2:15.30 (44.35)
      2:38.79 (1:07.84)   3:04.09 (1:33.14)
        3:25.50 (21.41)     3:49.55 (45.46)
      4:13.24 (1:09.15)   4:36.84 (1:32.75)
        4:57.86 (21.02)     5:21.87 (45.03)
      5:46.42 (1:09.58)   6:10.97 (1:34.13)
  6 Georgia                             6:17.17    6:12.54   26  
     1) Litherland, Jay JR            2) r:0.24 Kalisz, Chase SR      
     3) r:0.19 Clark, Pace SR         4) r:0.15 Bentz, Gunnar JR      
    r:+0.71  21.59        45.36 (45.36)
      1:09.39 (1:09.39)   1:34.19 (1:34.19)
        1:55.50 (21.31)     2:19.02 (44.83)
      2:43.14 (1:08.95)   3:07.30 (1:33.11)
        3:28.62 (21.32)     3:52.28 (44.98)
      4:16.36 (1:09.06)   4:40.52 (1:33.22)
        5:01.32 (20.80)     5:24.33 (43.81)
      5:48.56 (1:08.04)   6:12.54 (1:32.02)
  7 Stanford                            6:15.09    6:12.66   24  
     1) Shoults, Grant FR             2) r:0.08 Kremer, Tom SR        
     3) r:0.15 DeVine, Abrahm SO      4) r:0.24 Egan, Liam JR         
    r:+0.62  21.37        45.01 (45.01)
      1:09.15 (1:09.15)   1:33.65 (1:33.65)
        1:54.39 (20.74)     2:17.91 (44.26)
      2:41.59 (1:07.94)   3:05.40 (1:31.75)
        3:26.49 (21.09)     3:49.69 (44.29)
      4:14.11 (1:08.71)   4:38.89 (1:33.49)
        5:00.70 (21.81)     5:24.53 (45.64)
      5:48.72 (1:09.83)   6:12.66 (1:33.77)
  8 Louisville                          6:12.30    6:12.81   22  
     1) Lindenbauer, Matthias SR      2) r:0.28 Carroll, Trevor SR    
     3) r:0.20 Tarasevich, Grigory SR 4) r:0.10 Harting, Zach SO      
    r:+0.64  21.87        45.33 (45.33)
      1:09.19 (1:09.19)   1:34.06 (1:34.06)
        1:55.55 (21.49)     2:19.32 (45.26)
      2:43.33 (1:09.27)   3:07.52 (1:33.46)
        3:28.75 (21.23)     3:52.34 (44.82)
      4:16.27 (1:08.75)   4:40.19 (1:32.67)
        5:01.11 (20.92)     5:25.07 (44.88)
      5:48.91 (1:08.72)   6:12.81 (1:32.62)

2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Championships, Day 1 Results – Results

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flutterby

7 years ago

I don’t understand the headline.
North Carolina State won the relay and
I thought they broke all the records.
Texas came in second.
Was one of the NC State swimmers not a US citizen?
The article does not make any of this clear.

Taylor Brien

7 years ago

Reply to flutterby

Soeren Dahl, NC State’s anchor, is originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. The same thing occurred last year when Texas posted the then-NCAA/U.S. Open records because Joseph Schooling is from Singapore.