{"id":361024,"date":"2019-03-28T16:34:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T23:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=361024"},"modified":"2020-02-14T12:40:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T19:40:31","slug":"townley-haas-scares-american-record-takes-down-ncaa-record-in-500-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/townley-haas-scares-american-record-takes-down-ncaa-record-in-500-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Townley Haas Scares American Record, Takes Down NCAA Record in 500 Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going for his third straight NCAA title in the 500 free, Texas senior\u00a0Townley Haas\u00a0<\/strong>took the race out at a never-before-seen pace, splitting 1:35.69 at the 200 and almost swimming the first half in under 2:00. At one point, Haas was nearly three seconds under pace for the American record, which belongs to\u00a0Zane Grothe\u00a0<\/strong>at 4:07.25.<\/p>\n

Haas was still under record-pace at the 450, only to fade slightly on the last 50. He finished in 4:08.19, breaking\u00a0Clark Smith’s\u00a0<\/strong>NCAA record of 4:08.42 set in 2017. Haas’ performance made him the second-fastest swimmer in history.<\/p>\n

In Haas’ wake for much of the race, Cal’s Sean Grieshop\u00a0<\/strong>ended up putting up a stellar swim for second, with a time of 4:10.29. Arizona’s\u00a0Brooks Fail\u00a0<\/strong>finished third in 4:10.77.<\/p>\n

Michigan’s\u00a0Ricardo Vargas Jacobo<\/strong> finished fourth in 4:12.21, ahead of Georgia’s\u00a0Walker Higgins\u00a0<\/strong>(4:12.65) and South Carolina’s\u00a0Fynn Minuth\u00a0<\/strong>(4:12.72). Also in the A-final were Texas A&M’s\u00a0Mark Theall\u00a0<\/strong>(4:16.05) and Harvard’s\u00a0Brennan Novak\u00a0<\/strong>(4:21.72).<\/p>\n

In the B-final, Cal’s\u00a0Trenton Julian\u00a0<\/strong>crushed the field with an impressive time of 4:11.30, better than all but the top three in the A-final.<\/p>\n