Video produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Tony Carroll.
400 MEDLEY RELAY – FINALS
- NCAA –
3:27.51 – Stanford – 2014 - Championship –
3:27.51 – Stanford – 2014 - American –
3:27.51 – Stanford – 2014 - US Open –
3:27.51 – Stanford – 2014 - 2014 Champion: Stanford – 3:27.51
Virginia led for 399.9 yards of the 400 medley relay before getting touched out at the last second by Stanford. Stanford’s Simone Manuel split a nasty 45.45 to touch out the Cavaliers with their final time of 3:26.41. Virginia had a significant lead into the freestyle, but Ellen Thomas didn’t have enough to hold off Manuel. The finished second at 3:26.42.
California finished third with a time of 3:27.17. All three of the top relays were under the NCAA, American, and US Open records. The relay will officially go to Stanford, but don’t expect it to stay around for too long. Three of the four swimmers from Stanford were freshman.
Stanford Splits: 3:26.41
- Howe – 52.00
- Olsen – 58.07
- Hu – 50.89
- Manuel – 45.45
Virginia Splits: 3:26.42
- Bartholomew – 50.19
- Simon – 57.52
- Williamson – 51.02
- Thomas – 47.69
California Splits: 3:27.27
- Bootsma – 50.84
- Garcia – 59.28
- Osman – 51.07
- Franklin – 45.98
Missouri dropped a half second to improve to fourth with their time of 3:30.70, moving up four positions. Tennessee finished fifth at 3:30.84, Louisville was sixth at 3:30.91, USC was seventh at 3:31.00, and Georgia rounded out the A final with their time of 3:31.91.
Texas won the B final with their time of 3:30.98.
Imagine if Stanford had the first two legs of Virginia’s relay…3:24.05!
“The time doesn’t really matter” WHAT?! Yeah, I get it, a win at NCAA’s is huge, but NCAA’s happens every year, but she just went a 45.4! That would be a solid anchor for most mid-major men’s programs, not to mention it’s the fastest swim by a female ever, by a half second if I’m not mistaken. (I might be wrong there, I can’t remember if Weitzel was 45.6 or 45.9)
He’s right. The most important thing was not the great relay split but the fact that she swam enough fast to touch the wall first and bring the win to her team. Simone would have swum 45.47 and touched second then I don’t think her coach and herself would be very happy. When you will remember in 20 years the men’s 4X100 free relay at Beijing, you will remember the last 25 meters from Lezak and the touch ahead of Bernard which has brought the gold to USA and allowed Michael Phelps to keep his 8-gold medal quest alive. You will remember forever your emotion after the race because you probably didn’t expect at all what you had just watched… Read more »