After prelims, we speculated that Cal freshman Cierra Runge was blooming into a star before our eyes.
In finals, that transformation is complete.
Runge now has the fastest time in NCAA history, with her 4:31.90 beating out the 4:32.53 NCAA Record done by Georgia’s Brittany MacLean at NCAA’s last year.
See full day 2 finals recap here.
That swim is also the 9th-fastest in history, and ranks Runge 4th on the all-time rankings.
New Top 5:
- Katie Ledecky – 4:26.58
- Katie Hoff – 4:30.47
- Dagny Knutson – 4:31.18
- Cierra Runge – 4:31.90
- Brittany MacLean – 4:32.53
Comparative splits, by 100:
Runge – 51.6 + 54.4 + 55.2 + 55.6 + 54.9 = 4:31.90
MacLean – 53.0 + 55.4 + 55.7 + 55.3 + 52.9 = 4:32.53
Runge showed off impressive front-end speed, which is not a big surprise given how good she is in the 50 and 100 – she ranges from sprint to distance almost seamlessly.
Her previous best in the 500 was a 4:34.81 from the Georgia Fall Invitational last December.
Great job CAL Bears. I’m also excited for this freshman class.
“After prelims, we speculated that Cal freshman Cierra Runge was blooming into a star before our eyes.
In finals, that transformation is complete”
LOL – well that escalated quickly….
Congrats to a very nice kid
USA women’s middle distance group looks pretty strong a year out of Rio! Can’t wait to see who comes out of the woodwork to challenge those two next summer!
Short interview. I can’t believe she looks so surprised. Even shocked! 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaMU8kDBBHk
Guys, I predicted yesterday that Cierra Runge had a very good chance to break the 500 free NCAA record this week. Read me a little more sometimes. 🙂
She did it. Congrats to the Cal freshman. Great performance.
I don’t write WOW because it’s anything but a surprise.
Cierra Runge swam 4.04 in the 400 free last summer at Pan Pacs behind Katie Ledecky.
When you swim 4.04 in long course, you must be able to swim around 4.32 in yards.
Since then, she has shown to all Cal doubters that she continues to improve steadily there with best times swum during her freshman year. Last one in the 200 free in 1.42 on day 1… Read more »
Base years at NBAC? she was there for maybe 2-3 years and was at DST pretty much her entire life previously during age group and early junior level.
Im glad shes finally getting her time to shine. She posted some pretty good impressive times this past summer but was overshadowed by Ledecky. Excited to see how fast she can go at NCAA. Second woman under 430??
Well.. this is college swimming. No one really cares. But this will be interesting once she competed internationally this year. Because she has a lot of potential but competing in college might derailed it.
Please no one respond to this ridiculous comment. So POL simply goes away.
What’s that supposed to mean.
POL’s ridiculous and absurd comment that “No one cares about college swimming.”
Because it is true. Let’s see how they will do in Kazan. Until then, wake me up.
POL, you say that nobody cares about college swimming but you are always on here. I welcome the idea of you sleeping til Kazan. I’d be happy to wake you up, but until then, sleep well.
I don’t care about college swimming. I care about credibility. -Eliot Spitzer 2008
does anyone happen to have this race video?
Unlike SEC last week, absolutely no trace of Pac-12 race videos on youtube so far. I can’t believe nobody films the finals.
The Pac-12 network is showing tape-delayed coverage (as far as I can tell from their non-intuitive site it’s next-day, since, hey, who doesn’t mind waiting a day to see a sporting event?), so that’s my guess as to why they’re not streaming it live. It’s certainly being filmed.