Eddie Reese and Townley Haas put on a show (Video Interview)

  7 Coleman Hodges | March 25th, 2016

2016 NCAA DI Men's Championships

24 Mar 2016 – 26 Mar 2016

Produced by Coleman Hodges.

Reported by Jared Anderson.

200 FREESTYLE – FINALS

  • NCAA Record: 1:31.20, Simon Burnett, 2006
  • American Record: 1:31.31, Ricky Berens, 2013
  • U.S. Open Record: 1:31.20, Simon Burnett, 2006
  • Pool Record: 1:31.20, Simon Burnett, 2006
  • 2015 Champion: 1:32.03, Cristian Quintero

Top 3:

  1. Townley Haas, Texas – 1:30.46
  2. Matias Koski, Georgia – 1:31.54
  3. Simonas Bilis, NC State – 1:32.10

A second-straight record from before the super-suit ban went down to a young Texas swimmer as freshman Townley Haas belted a 1:30.46 to shatter American, U.S. Open and NCAA records in the 200 free.

That’s a whale of a swim, even better than the 1:30.52 he split on opening night in the 800 free relay. That swim was the fastest relay split ever, and now Haas has actually bettered that time from a flat start. It was sheer speed the entire way, with Haas going out in 43.6 to the 100 and building a lead of almost a full second by that point.

Georgia’s Matias Koski was also quick, going 1:31.54 for second. That’s the 5th-fastest swim of all-time, and shows off Koski’s impressive range: he won the 1650 last year and is now among the fastest 200 freestylers in history.

NC State’s Simonas Bilis wetn 1:32.10 for 3rd, touching out Florida’s Jan Switkowski (1:32.14). Places 3 through 7 were all extremely close, with just seven tenths of a second separating them.

It’s been a tougher day for NC State after a hot start, but the 200 free was a nice jump-start for their momentum. Along with Bilis’s bronze, in the B final Ryan Held held onto 9th place, dropping eight tenths to go 1:32.41, and Soeren Dahl remained in 10th place with a 1:33.20, also faster than his morning swim.

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Longhorn 2020
9 years ago

Townley’s a good interview. Eddie of course is always great

ERVINFORTHEWIN
9 years ago

Its wonderful to see such connections between Coach Reece and and Townley . This relationship will bring Haas in the best preparation for an Olympic qualification . Jeahhhh

Don
9 years ago

Yea, saw the longer version on SW.Once again, Eddie Reese demonstrates everything a great college coach should be, and I am not talking about swimming technique.

FL LSC
9 years ago

There is a longer version of the interview floating around out there. It’s worth the effort finding if only to hear more from Eddie.

PVSFree
Reply to  FL LSC
9 years ago

I believe it’s on swimming world’s YouTube channel if someone is interested in watching it

Chris
9 years ago

Interesting remarks. Looking forward to the mile, would love these guys going 1-2.

Ok
9 years ago

Clark only slept an hour before the 500? Well he scratched 200 to sleep through it!