NCAA Men’s Championships: Texas Dominates 800 Free Relay for New American, NCAA Record (VIDEO)

Drew Kibler congratulates Carson Foster after Foster anchored Texas' 800 freestyle relay to victory -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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NCAA Men’s Championships: Texas Dominates 800 Free Relay for New American, NCAA Record

As the Texas Longhorns set out in pursuit of a second consecutive NCAA team championship and a sixth title in the past seven meets, the group got off to a near-perfect start on Wednesday evening. After a close second-place finish to Florida in the 200 medley relay, the team of Drew Kibler, Coby Carrozza, Luke Hobson and Carson Foster put together a championship performance in the 800 freestyle relay.

Kibler led off in 1:30.54, putting him just ahead of Florida’s Kieran Smith (1:30.66), Georgia’s Matt Sates (1:30.78) and Arizona State’s Grant House (1:31.01). Georgia then moved into the lead on the second leg as Luca Urlando blasted a 1:30.58 for the Bulldogs while Carrozza came in with a swift 1:31.46. On the third leg, Texas turned to freshman Luke Hobson, and he delivered with a 1:30.84 to put the Longhorns in front. Foster sealed the deal with a 1:31.05 on the end, and Texas’ final time was 6:03.89, more than a second faster than the previous American, NCAA and U.S. Open record of 6:05.08 that Texas set at the 2019 NCAA Championships.

That previous record-setting group also featured Kibler, then a freshman, on the leadoff leg, and he was followed by the group of Austin Katz, Jeff Newkirk and Olympian Townley Haas. Now, Kibler is the veteran on a team with two sophomores and one freshman who could be in the hunt to contend in individual events right away.

“It means a lot, of course, getting a win for the Longhorns,” Kibler said. “This meet is a momentum game, so the most important part, I think, is that we’re developing momentum. Our 200 medley relay guys were awesome as well, but it’s just the start. We’re coming into tomorrow like it’s a fresh meet, like today didn’t even happen. We’re going to come out swinging, give it everything we’ve got, but it’s great to get the ball rolling, get some good momentum. We’ve been chasing that American record for three years now, so it’s good to get it. I’m really proud of these guys.”

Foster added his admiration of Hobson and Carrozza delivering big performances in their first time racing on a relay at the NCAA Championships. “These guys haven’t been on this relay before, so for them to come in and drop massive splits like they did is really cool,” Foster said. “We take pride in that relay. We feel like that’s our relay, so to be able to go out there, break the American record and win by the margin we did was our expectation, and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

Georgia placed second with Sates, Urlando, Zach Hils and Jake Magahey. The Bulldogs finished in 6:05.59, just a half-second off the previous record in the event. Stanford’s Andrei Minakov, Luke Maurer, Ron Polonsky and Preston Forst placed third in 6:06.83. Minakov led off for the Cardinal in 1:31.49, and Forst supplied a 1:31.36 anchor split.

A balanced Cal quartet of Trenton Julian, Robin Hanson, Gabriel Jett and Destin Lasco placed fourth in 6:07.32, with Julian and Jett both splitting 1:31.5, while Arizona State, the top-seeded team entering the meet, ended up fifth. The team of House, Patrick Sammon, Julian Hill and Leon Marchand came in at 6:07.32, which was actually quicker than the Sun Devils’ time from the Pac-12 Championships. Most notably for Arizona State, Marchand anchored in 1:29.96, the second-best split in the field and more than a second faster than he swam at the conference meet three weeks earlier.

The fastest split of the race belonged to Harvard’s Dean Farris, the American-record holder in the individual 200 free. Farris was timed at 1:29.85 on the second leg of the Crimson’s 15th-place squad. As a whole, the field showed speed never before seen in an 800 free relay, with 21 total swimmers splitting under 1:32.

The win in this relay plus a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay helped Texas finish day one with 74 points, with Florida (64), Cal (61), NC State (57), Stanford (54) and Arizona State (54) just behind the Longhorns.

  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

Event 2  Men 800 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
         NCAA: N 6:05.08  3/27/2019 Texas
                          D Kibler, A Katz, J Newkirk, F Haas
         Meet: M 6:05.08  3/27/2019 Texas
                          D Kibler, A Katz, J Newkirk, F Haas
     American: A 6:05.08  3/27/2019 Texas
                          D Kibler, A Katz, J Newkirk, F Haas
   U. S. Open: O 6:05.08  3/27/2019 Texas
                          D Kibler, A Katz, J Newkirk, F Haas
         Pool: P 6:08.03  3/23/2016 Texas
                          J Conger, F Haas, C Smith, J Schooling
    School                                          Finals Points 
==================================================================================
  1 Texas                                          6:03.89N  40  
     1) Kibler, Drew SR               2) r:0.27 Carrozza, Coby SO     
     3) r:0.31 Hobson, Luke FR        4) r:0.25 Foster, Carson SO     
    r:+0.59  21.20        44.12 (44.12)
      1:07.44 (1:07.44)   1:30.54 (1:30.54)
        1:51.46 (20.92)     2:14.57 (44.03)
      2:38.34 (1:07.80)   3:02.00 (1:31.46)
        3:23.06 (21.06)     3:46.01 (44.01)
      4:09.25 (1:07.25)   4:32.84 (1:30.84)
        4:53.45 (20.61)     5:16.32 (43.48)
      5:39.95 (1:07.11)   6:03.89 (1:31.05)
  2 Georgia                                        6:05.59P  34  
     1) Sates, Matthew FR             2) r:0.29 Urlando, Luca SO      
     3) r:0.38 Hils, Zach JR          4) r:0.28 Magahey, Jake SO      
    r:+0.62  20.83        43.81 (43.81)
      1:06.96 (1:06.96)   1:30.78 (1:30.78)
        1:51.29 (20.51)     2:14.26 (43.48)
      2:37.52 (1:06.74)   3:01.36 (1:30.58)
        3:22.43 (21.07)     3:45.80 (44.44)
      4:09.62 (1:08.26)   4:33.63 (1:32.27)
        4:54.83 (21.20)     5:18.17 (44.54)
      5:41.74 (1:08.11)   6:05.59 (1:31.96)
  3 Stanford                                       6:06.83P  32  
     1) Minakov, Andrei SO            2) r:0.11 Maurer, Luke SO       
     3) r:0.30 Polonsky, Ron FR       4) r:0.02 Forst, Preston SO     
    r:+0.61  21.10        44.32 (44.32)
      1:07.57 (1:07.57)   1:31.49 (1:31.49)
        1:52.28 (20.79)     2:15.66 (44.17)
      2:40.01 (1:08.52)   3:04.09 (1:32.60)
        3:24.74 (20.65)     3:47.92 (43.83)
      4:11.56 (1:07.47)   4:35.47 (1:31.38)
        4:56.27 (20.80)     5:19.39 (43.92)
      5:42.99 (1:07.52)   6:06.83 (1:31.36)
  4 California                                     6:06.90P  30  
     1) Julian, Trenton 5Y            2) r:0.15 Hanson, Robin FR      
     3) r:0.20 Jett, Gabriel FR       4) r:0.20 Lasco, Destin SO      
    r:+0.61  20.95        43.84 (43.84)
      1:07.45 (1:07.45)   1:31.57 (1:31.57)
        1:52.47 (20.90)     2:15.97 (44.40)
      2:39.64 (1:08.07)   3:03.53 (1:31.96)
        3:24.51 (20.98)     3:47.58 (44.05)
      4:11.29 (1:07.76)   4:35.07 (1:31.54)
        4:56.17 (21.10)     5:19.92 (44.85)
      5:43.54 (1:08.47)   6:06.90 (1:31.83)
  5 ASU                                            6:07.32P  28  
     1) House, Grant SR               2) r:0.38 Sammon, Patrick FR    
     3) r:0.39 Hill, Julian JR        4) r:0.30 Marchand, Leon FR     
    r:+0.63  21.04        43.95 (43.95)
      1:07.48 (1:07.48)   1:31.01 (1:31.01)
        1:52.20 (21.19)     2:16.00 (44.99)
      2:40.42 (1:09.41)   3:04.76 (1:33.75)
        3:26.09 (21.33)     3:49.29 (44.53)
      4:13.27 (1:08.51)   4:37.36 (1:32.60)
        4:57.79 (20.43)     5:20.56 (43.20)
      5:44.08 (1:06.72)   6:07.32 (1:29.96)
  6 NCSU                                           6:08.22   26  
     1) Miller, Luke SO               2) r:0.34 Hoover, Sam FR        
     3) r:0.30 Piszczorowicz, tosz JR 4) r:0.20 Tapp, Hunter JR       
    r:+0.62  21.26        44.57 (44.57)
      1:07.86 (1:07.86)   1:31.62 (1:31.62)
        1:52.74 (21.12)     2:16.22 (44.60)
      2:39.86 (1:08.24)   3:03.71 (1:32.09)
        3:24.36 (20.65)     3:47.36 (43.65)
      4:11.72 (1:08.01)   4:36.55 (1:32.84)
        4:57.06 (20.51)     5:20.04 (43.49)
      5:43.64 (1:07.09)   6:08.22 (1:31.67)
  7 Florida                                        6:09.01   24  
     1) Smith, Kieran SR              2) r:0.36 Freeman, Trey JR      
     3) r:0.29 Lindholm, Oskar FR     4) r:0.37 Mestre, Alfonso JR    
    r:+0.68  20.95        43.82 (43.82)
      1:07.17 (1:07.17)   1:30.66 (1:30.66)
        1:52.09 (21.43)     2:15.61 (44.95)
      2:39.47 (1:08.81)   3:03.29 (1:32.63)
        3:24.92 (21.63)     3:48.79 (45.50)
      4:12.98 (1:09.69)   4:36.90 (1:33.61)
        4:58.14 (21.24)     5:21.10 (44.20)
      5:44.95 (1:08.05)   6:09.01 (1:32.11)
  8 Louisville                                     6:10.59   22  
     1) Sartori, Murilo FR            2) r:0.20 Albiero, Nicolas 5Y   
     3) r:0.27 Loktev, Denis FR       4) r:0.18 Eastman, Michael SR   
    r:+0.66  21.62        45.10 (45.10)
      1:08.90 (1:08.90)   1:32.80 (1:32.80)
        1:53.39 (20.59)     2:16.60 (43.80)
      2:40.16 (1:07.36)   3:04.00 (1:31.20)
        3:24.80 (20.80)     3:48.32 (44.32)
      4:12.52 (1:08.52)   4:37.16 (1:33.16)
        4:58.19 (21.03)     5:21.70 (44.54)
      5:45.74 (1:08.58)   6:10.59 (1:33.43)

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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