{"id":301941,"date":"2018-03-23T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=301941"},"modified":"2018-03-23T06:14:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T13:14:25","slug":"when-texas-needs-him-townley-haas-comes-up-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/when-texas-needs-him-townley-haas-comes-up-big\/","title":{"rendered":"When Texas Needs Him, Townley Haas Comes Up Big"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Townley Haas<\/strong> and the Texas Longhorns slogged their way through a sub-.500 dual meet season. The veteran Texas Longhorn, NCAA and Olympic champion and individual World Championship medalist was routinely swimming no faster than 1:37 or 1:38 in the 200-yard free, and swimmers with far weaker credentials were routinely beating him soundly.<\/p>\n

Haas never let any of it get to him. He knew what he was made of and that, come championship time, it would show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t bother me,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know how hard we worked, and we know with hard work comes maybe not the best dual meets. We knew that when it came down to NCAAs, we\u2019d be ready.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Through the first two days of the meet, Haas has held up his end of the bargain. Leading off Texas\u2019 4×200 free relay Wednesday night, the junior put up a time of 1:30.41, his lifetime best and five hundredths quicker than the landmark American record of 1:30.46 he set back in 2016. The only problem? Blake Pieroni<\/strong> crushed that record, leading off Indiana\u2019s relay in 1:29.63.<\/p>\n

Haas took it in stride. No, he was not pleased to come lose his record or to not be the first man to break 1:30, which so many people had expected of him. Still, it was a best time, and that set him up for another run in the 500 free, a chance to reclaim the title he won in a stunner as a freshman two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"townley-haas-\"

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s exactly what he did, leading the race wire to wire and coming in at 4:08.60, four tenths faster than runner-up Felix Aub\u00f6ck<\/strong> of Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strategy\u2019s always to get out in front and hang on as long as I can, so that\u2019s what I did,\u201d Haas said. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing too complicated\u2014just going out and staying in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that performance, Haas moved up from seventh to fourth on the all-time list, passing Jean Basson<\/strong> and the legendary Tom Dolan<\/strong>. But most importantly, he got the job done for Texas. He and fellow 500 finalist Sam Pomajevich<\/strong> were the only individual finalists for the Longhorns on day one of the meet, and the team also missed qualifying its 4×100 medley relay for the A-final.<\/p>\n

Still, Haas did his job, and perhaps Texas is right where it needs to be. Indiana, perhaps the most impressive team from the first two days of the meet, has a narrow lead with 169 points, with NC State, Texas, Cal and Florida all within 15. No, Texas hasn\u2019t run away with the title like each of the past three years, but Haas and his teammates are not buried yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Texas, we tend to get better as the meet goes on,\u201d he said. \u201cWe take it one session at a time. This morning may not have been our best session, but we get better as each session goes. Almost everyone who swam tonight was better than they swam this morning. We\u2019re going to continue to get better.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Next up for Haas: the individual showdown with Pieroni in the 200 free. Haas knows that he will have to be better than he\u2019s ever been to stand a chance at taking down the man who beat him to the punch of going under 1:30.<\/p>\n

But Haas has never been the swimmer who gets too high or too low emotionally or spends too much time worrying about what someone else did. And that\u2019s why, when he stands on the blocks next to Pieroni for the 200 free, he has a fighting chance\u2014and that\u2019s why Texas, battered as they may be, still stands a chance to win consecutive national title No. 4.<\/p>\n