Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Jared Anderson.
200 MEDLEY RELAY – FINALS
- NCAA Record: 1:22.27, Michigan, 2013
- American Record: 1:22.40, California, 2015
- U.S. Open Record: 1:22.27, Michigan, 2013
Pool Record: 1:23.50, California, 2016- 2015 Champion: 1:22.74, California
Top 3:
- Alabama – 1:22.28
- California – 1:22.49
- Texas – 1:22.75
Though Texas had gone undefeated in relays up to this point, it was Alabama that threw down for the 200 medley title, going 1:22.28 to come within .01 of the NCAA and U.S. Open records. That was powered by Kristian Gkolomeev’s insane 18.00 split on the freestyle – the second-best freestyle split of all-time and just off of the second 17-second split in history.
Connor Oslin had a great 20.86 on the leadoff leg, with Pavel Romanov (23.40) and Luke Kaliszak (20.02) filling out the other two legs.
Cal (1:22.49) was second and Texas (1:22.75) third, each getting a record-breaking split. Ryan Murphy led off for Cal in 20.20, the fastest 50 back in history, while Texas got a 19.36 on fly from Joseph Schooling for the fastest fly split of all-time.
Back in 4th place, Florida elected to let Caeleb Dressel loose on freestyle. The sprint champ had been swimming breaststroke on the medleys this year to cover Florida’s biggest weakness, but it was certainly worth taking a rough breaststroke leg to let Dressel pop an 18.00 on free, tying Gkolomeev for the second-best split of all-time.
Louisville was fifth in 1:24.08, getting a 20.20 from flyer Josh Quallen, while Tennessee rattled yet another all-time split record from sixth place. Peter Stevens was 22.69 on the breaststroke, coming within .05 of the best split all-time, done by Cal’s Chuck Katis a year ago.
