Bold Strategy: Haas Blasts First 200, Takes Down 500 Free NCAA Record

2019 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 27 – Saturday, March 30
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, Texas
• Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Central Time)
• Defending champion: Texas (4x) (2018 results)
• Psych Sheet
• Live Stream
• Live results

Behind an unfathomable 1:35.69 opening 200, Texas senior Townley Haas hung on over the final 200 yards, to narrowly clip former teammate Clark Smith‘s NCAA Record to win his third career 500 yard freestyle title in 4:08.19.  Haas wasted no time off the start, blitzing the field with a 46.38 opening 100, and then recording four more 50 splits between 24.9 and 25.1 to put himself nearly three seconds under Zane Grothe‘s American & U.S. Open record pace.  By the 300 mark, he had built nearly a four second lead on the field.

Haas faded hard over the final 200, coming home in just 50.92 over the final 100, but cleared Smith’s previous record of 4:08.42.  The swim also gave Texas a much-needed 20 points in the team race.

A comparison of some of history’s top splits:

The clear difference was in Haas’ front-end speed over the other top swims in history, but Grothe legendary enduring and closing stroke rate were enough to keep the American and U.S. Open record.

Haas’ third title puts him in rare company as just the fifth swimmer to win at least three 500 freestyles at NCAA’s, and the first since Artur Wojdat won four in the early ’90s.

Notably, Sean Grieshop of California moved into the 15 performers in history with his 4:10.29 second place effort.