FEDERAL WAY, Washington, March 27. GEORGIA's Sebastien Rouault captured the 500 free title at the NCAA Division I Men's Championships with a smoking fast time in the event.
Rouault dropped an amazing time of 4:09.48 on the crowd, that was on its feet hoping for an NCAA record. While Peter Vanderkaay's NCAA standard of 4:08.60 withstood the assault, Rouault did move up into third all time in the event behind Vanderkaay's American-record 4:08.54 and Tom Dolan's 4:08.75. Overall, Rouault's time is the fourth fastest ever.
The win is Georgia's first in the event.
"Last year, I had to go to the the World Championships the week after and we decided to taper a bit more for Worlds," Rouault said. "I came here and I was not feeling great. A big difference, I trained a lot better with (teammate) Troy Prinsloo. We pushed each other a lot more and he really helped me all season."
Texas' Michael Klueh dropped his personal best time from a 4:11.41 down to 4:10.00 for second as the time now stands as the seventh-best of all time. The performance also moved Klueh into fifth all time behind Larsen Jensen's 4:09.80 from last year's NCAAs and ahead of Michael Phelps' 4:10.43.
Additionally, Arizona's Jean Basson finished third with a time of 4:12.75 to become the 10th quickest in the event all time.
At the end of the event, Texas held a lead with 58 points while Arizona stood second with 50. Stanford (44), Auburn (40) and California (37) rounded out the top five.