NCAA Men’s Championships: Texas Dominates 800 Free Relay for New American, NCAA Record<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Drew Kibler<\/strong>,\u00a0Coby Carrozza<\/strong>,\u00a0Luke Hobson<\/strong> and\u00a0Carson Foster<\/strong> put together a championship performance in the 800 freestyle relay.<\/p>\n

Kibler led off in 1:30.54, putting him just ahead of Florida’s\u00a0Kieran Smith<\/strong> (1:30.66), Georgia’s\u00a0Matt Sates\u00a0<\/strong>(1:30.78) and Arizona State’s\u00a0Grant House\u00a0<\/strong>(1:31.01). Georgia then moved into the lead on the second leg as\u00a0Luca Urlando<\/strong> 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\u00a0Luke Hobson<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

That previous record-setting group also featured Kibler, then a freshman, on the leadoff leg, and he was followed by the group of\u00a0Austin Katz<\/strong>,\u00a0Jeff Newkirk<\/strong> and Olympian\u00a0Townley Haas<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n

“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\u2019re developing momentum. Our 200 medley relay guys were awesome as well, but it\u2019s just the start. We\u2019re coming into tomorrow like it\u2019s a fresh meet, like today didn\u2019t even happen. We\u2019re going to come out swinging, give it everything we\u2019ve got, but it\u2019s great to get the ball rolling, get some good momentum. We\u2019ve been chasing that American record for three years now, so it\u2019s good to get it. I\u2019m really proud of these guys.”<\/p>\n