NCAA Men’s Championships: Leon Marchand Concludes Magnificent NCAA Debut With 200 Breast Title<\/strong><\/p>\n

After capturing the national title in the 100 breaststroke one day earlier, Minnesota’s Max McHugh<\/strong> led the 200 breaststroke final for 175 yards as he aimed to complete the double for the second straight year. But Arizona State’s\u00a0Leon Marchand<\/strong> used a brilliant final pullout to pull ahead of McHugh, and McHugh could not respond. Marchand’s incredible last 50 (where he split 28.32) helped him finish in 1:48.20, more than a half-second ahead of McHugh’s 1:48.76.<\/p>\n

Marchand’s time made him the second-fastest performer in history behind\u00a0Will Licon<\/strong>, who set the American record of 1:47.91 in 2017, while McHugh, now ranked sixth all-time dipped under 1:49 for the first time in his career. The title was the second this week for Marchand after he took down\u00a0Caeleb Dressel’s\u00a0<\/strong>U.S. Open and NCAA records in the 200 IM on Thursday before he placed second to Cal’s\u00a0Hugo Gonzalez<\/strong> in Friday’s 400 IM. In his first season competing in the United States, Marchand delivered the a performance widely regarded as the top individual effort of the entire meet.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s amazing because I didn\u2019t know I would be that fast,” Marchand said. “I won two events and finished second in the 400 IM. Those are very good results for me. That\u2019s my first year, so I have time to improve. That\u2019s pretty cool.”<\/p>\n

Penn freshman\u00a0Matt Fallon<\/strong> qualified fastest for the final with his time of 1:49.03, but Fallon swims a unique style where he swims slowly on the first 100 yards before accelerating significantly after that. Indeed, Fallon was in last place at the halfway point, but he split 27.38 on the third 50 to pass five swimmers. However, he could not make up anymore ground after that, and he ended up seventh in 1:49.16. Fallon’s prelims performance ranks him seventh all-time in the race. Virginia Tech’s\u00a0Carles Coll Marti<\/strong> was the only other swimmer to break 1:50 as he recorded a fourth-place time of 1:49.69.<\/p>\n

While the American competitors on the NCAA level have been competing in short course yards for their entire careers, this is a totally new format for Marchand. He admitted, “I don\u2019t have goal times. I\u2019m just trying for each race to push my own limits, trying to be the best of myself. Applying what I\u2019m doing in training and just give everything.”<\/p>\n

But the combination of his performance at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, when Marchand placed sixth in the 400-meter IM final, and his improvements on the college level that have been evident, have boosted the 19-year-old’s confidence. With the college season concluded, Marchand will turn his attention to long course as soon as next week, when he will race at the TYR Pro Swim Series in San Antonio, and he will return to global competition as a much more highly-regarded and dangerous performer than when he made his Olympic final debut last summer.<\/p>\n

“I think I\u2019m having a lot more fun here than in France,” Marchand said. “I\u2019m doing a lot more relays here. It\u2019s more like a team, and we are very nice to each other, so that\u2019s cool. I love to swim for the team, too, to try to bring the most points that I can for ASU. Another thing is that the training is different here. The intensity is different, and I improved a lot on underwater kicking and backstroke.”<\/p>\n