Shaine Casas Fights Off Push From Lasco to Scare Murphy’s American Record in 200 Back

Photo Courtesy: NCAA Media

Shaine Casas Fights Off Push From Lasco to Scare Murphy’s American Record in 200 Back

Texas A&M junior Shaine Casas and Cal freshman Destin Lasco had locked all horns all weekend long at the NCAA swimming and diving championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Casas winning both the 200 IM and 100 backstroke with Lasco finishing third in both.

In round three between the pair, they saved their best for last as they joined the exclusive sub-1:36 club that now has three members. Casas won at 1:35.75 to just miss Ryan Murphy’s record of 1:35.73 from the 2016 NCAAs that many consider one of the most impressive records on the books. Lasco gave Casas a good fight as they were stroke for stroke down to the finish, as the freshman was second at 1:35.99.

Lasco took the lead at the 150 by 0.02 but Casas did not back down, and the two flipped even at the final 25.

Cal scored big points to close the gap on Texas with Lasco, Bryce Mefford (1:38.31) and Daniel Carr (1:38.86) finishing 2-3-4 to pull within 26 points of the Longhorns, who had two finalists themselves. Senior Austin Katz (1:38.92) and freshman Carson Foster (1:39.23) cancelled out some of Cal’s point loading iin fifth and sixth place as it looks like the Longhorns may be jumping into the pool at the end of the night.

Florida’s Clark Beach (1:40.42) and Georgia’s Javier Acevedo (1:41.80) also swam in the championship final.

Texas A&M now has three NCAA titles in men’s swimming and diving, all coming from Casas this weekend. This is the first NCAA title for the SEC in the men’s 200 back since Tennessee’s Tripp Schwenk won in 1993.

All-Time Rankings:

1:35.73, Ryan Murphy, California, 2016
1:35.75, Shaine Casas, Texas A&M, 2021
1:35.99, Destin Lasco, California, 2021
1:36.42, John Shebat, Texas, 2019
1:36.45, Austin Katz, Texas, 2019
1:36.81, Ryan Lochte, Florida, 2006

 Event 16  Men 200 Yard Backstroke
=========================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:35.73  3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California
         Meet: M 1:35.73  3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California
     American: A 1:35.73  3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California
   U. S. Open: O 1:35.73  3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California
         Pool: P 1:37.19  3/27/2021 Destin Lasco, California
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Casas, Shaine          JR TAMU              1:37.23    1:35.75P  20  
    r:+0.62  22.35        46.95 (24.60)
        1:11.53 (24.58)     1:35.75 (24.22)
  2 Lasco, Destin          FR California        1:37.19    1:35.99P  17  
    r:+0.70  22.79        47.22 (24.43)
        1:11.51 (24.29)     1:35.99 (24.48)
  3 Mefford, Bryce         SR California        1:38.55    1:38.31   16  
    r:+0.65  23.11        47.76 (24.65)
        1:12.87 (25.11)     1:38.31 (25.44)
  4 Carr, Daniel           SR California        1:38.63    1:38.86   15  
    r:+0.64  23.27        48.22 (24.95)
        1:13.61 (25.39)     1:38.86 (25.25)
  5 Katz, Austin           SR Texas             1:39.55    1:38.92   14  
    r:+0.68  22.90        47.48 (24.58)
        1:12.88 (25.40)     1:38.92 (26.04)
  6 Foster, Carson         FR Texas             1:38.41    1:39.23   13  
    r:+0.71  23.48        48.61 (25.13)
        1:14.02 (25.41)     1:39.23 (25.21)
  7 Beach, Clark           SR Florida           1:40.20    1:40.42   12  
    r:+0.53  23.58        48.66 (25.08)
        1:14.64 (25.98)     1:40.42 (25.78)
  8 Acevedo, Javi          SR Georgia           1:39.60    1:41.80   11  
    r:+0.75  24.26        49.76 (25.50)
        1:15.98 (26.22)     1:41.80 (25.82)
 
                        === Consolation Final ===                        
 
  9 Whyte, Mitchell        JR Louisville        1:40.51    1:40.00    9  
    r:+0.69  22.90        48.11 (25.21)
        1:14.20 (26.09)     1:40.00 (25.80)
 10 Grum, Ian              SO Georgia           1:41.02    1:40.01    7  
    r:+0.67  23.46        48.60 (25.14)
        1:14.32 (25.72)     1:40.01 (25.69)
 11 Dahlgren, Jack         JR Missouri          1:40.49    1:40.33    6  
    r:+0.75  23.65        49.29 (25.64)
        1:14.83 (25.54)     1:40.33 (25.50)
 12 Tornqvist, Sam         SR VT                1:40.81    1:40.54    5  
    r:+0.60  23.65        49.26 (25.61)
        1:15.15 (25.89)     1:40.54 (25.39)
 13 Mefford, Colby         SO California        1:41.08    1:40.64    4  
    r:+0.61  23.70        49.18 (25.48)
        1:14.48 (25.30)     1:40.64 (26.16)
 14 Grender, Justin        JR Virginia          1:40.20    1:41.12    3  
    r:+0.68  23.52        49.09 (25.57)
        1:15.20 (26.11)     1:41.12 (25.92)
 15 Steele, Jacob          SR Indiana           1:40.49    1:41.44    2  
    r:+0.66  23.40        48.70 (25.30)
        1:15.01 (26.31)     1:41.44 (26.43)
 16 Fantoni, Gabriel       SR Indiana           1:41.07    1:42.53    1  
    r:+0.77  23.27        49.19 (25.92)
        1:15.93 (26.74)     1:42.53 (26.60)

Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 16                  
 
  1. Texas                             466   2. California                        440
  3. Florida                           314   4. Georgia                           236
  5. Indiana                           168   6. Louisville                        159
  7. Texas A&M                         147   8. NC State                          136
  9. Ohio St                           119  10. Virginia                          105
 11. Michigan                          100  12. Arizona                            81
 13. Missouri                           73  14. Virginia Tech                      65
 15. Stanford                           64  16. Alabama                            53
 17. Lsu                                52  18. Tennessee                          38
 18. University of Miami                38  20. UNC                                31
 20. Purdue                             31  22. Notre Dame                         29
 22. Georgia Tech                       29  24. Florida St                       24.5
 25. Pittsburgh                         23  26. Minnesota                          20
 27. Wisconsin                          15  27. Southern California                15
 29. Penn St                            13  30. Kentucky                            9
 31. Utah                              6.5

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