1650 Champion Connor Jaeger on night 3 at the 2013 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship. As reported by Braden Keith:
The 1650 freestyle that Connor Jaeger swam on Saturday night en route to winning his second individual NCAA title of the meet wasn’t the fastest ever. His 14:27.18 was the 7th-fastest swim ever and just three seconds off of Martin Grodzki’s record from last year.
But to the eye, it looked as impressive as any mile I’ve ever seen. He and Texas’ Michael McBroom were dead-even through 800 yards, but when Jaeger decided that it was time to pull away, he did so with a vengance. Over the next 500 yards, he’d built about a 10-yard lead on the field and begin lapping everybody, turning on his legs as early as the 1000 mark. While his competitors saved the burst of speed (and sap of energy) that comes from kicking, Jaeger was driving away from them.
McBroom finished 2nd in 14:32.75. That’s almost identical to the 14:32.86 he swam to win the 2011 NCAA title in this event.
Georgia’s Matias Koski came out of the morning heats to place 3rd in 14:42.09. Georgia finished 3-5-10-11 in this race, with the 5 being from Andrew Gemmell, the 10 from Will Freeman, and the 11 from Martin Grodzki. Freeman was the only of those guys to swim in the final heat, but he was the only of the four who added from his seed time as well.
Michigan, meanwhile, filled in very well behind Jaeger. Sean Ryan was 4th in 14:46.29, Ryan Feeley was 6th in 14:49.05, and Anders Nielsen was 9th in 14:51.40.
Other finishers in the top 8 were LSU’s Craig Hamilton in 14:49.12, and Stanford freshman Danny Thomson in 14:49.62 – a 13-second time drop.
Cal’s Jeremy Bagshaw dropped 19 seconds to finish 18th in 14;56.65 in the early heats, but that wasn’t enough to get badly-needed points. Other big drops included Ohio State’s Alex Miller in 14:57.29 for 19th, a 6-second best time.
