Ryan Murphy: “You almost become a victim of your own success” (Video)

^{Reported by Jared Anderson.}

100 BACKSTROKE – FINALS

• NCAA record: Ryan Murphy (Cal), 2016- 43.49
• American record: Ryan Murphy (Cal), 2016- 43.49
• U.S. Open record: Ryan Murphy (Cal), 2016- 43.49
• 2016 NCAA Champion: Ryan Murphy (Cal)- 43.49

Top 3:

1. Ryan Murphy, Cal – 43.99
2. John Shebat, Texas – 44.35
3. Connor Oslin, Alabama – 44.56

Cal’s Ryan Murphy completed his first four-peat, winning his fourth-straight NCAA title in the event with a 43.99. Murphy hasn’t been quite as on fire as he was last year, but this time still stacks up as the third-fastest swim in history, and Murphy himself owns all three swims ever under 44 seconds.

Second went to Texas sophomore John Shebat, who has morphed this week into the NCAA’s next premier backstroker in the post-Murphy era. Shebat was 44.35, cutting almost three more tenths off his prelims swim and moving to #3 all-time. He passes up Olympic champ Matt Grevers tonight.

Alabama’s Connor Oslin took third in 44.56 – that finishes just outside of the top 10 swims all-time, and Oslin remains 5th in history. The Crimson Tide also took fourth in 44.91 with junior Luke Kaliszak.

USC’s Ralf Tribuntsov touched out Penn State’s Shane Ryan for fifth, 45.13 to 45.17. Ryan had to win a swim-off just to make the A final, and moved up to sixth place. He was a narrow 0.05 ahead of Louisville’s Grigory Tarasevich (45.22) for seventh. And NC State’s Andreas Vazaios went 45.49 for 8th place.

Georgia’s Taylor Dale came up with one of the most impressive B final swims of the night. Dale swam the 100 back in the morning, plus Georgia’s 200 medley relay, then lost  swim-off for 8th in the 100 back, making tonight’s B final his 4th swim of the day. But Dale came up with his best swim by far, blasting a 44.64 to crush the field by a body length and crack the top 10 all-time. Dale now sits 7th all-time, passing up – ironically enough – Penn State’s Ryan, who beat him in the swim-off just about four hours ago.