2018 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 21 – Saturday, March 24
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center – Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Defending champion: Texas (3x) (results)
- Psych Sheet
- Championship Central
- Event-by-Event Previews
- Team Power Rankings: Final Edition
- Live Stream
- Live Results
Courtesy of Anthony Preda
Originally reported by Jared Anderson
800 FREESTYLE RELAY
NCAA record: NC State (Held, Vazaios, Ress, Dahl), 2017, 6:06.53American record: Texas (Conger, Newkirk, Smith, Haas), 2017, 6:08.61U.S. Open record: NC State (Held, Vazaios, Ress, Dahl), 2017, 6:06.53- 2017 NCAA Champion: NC State (Held, Vazaios, Ress, Dahl), 6:06.53
Indiana’s Blake Pieroni led off against reigning American record-holder Townley Haas, finishing with the two fastest 200 frees in history along with the first-ever swim under 1:30 – relay start or flat start. Pieroni went 1:29.63 to crush the field, blowing almost a full second off of Haas’s old American record. Haas was 1:30.41 to just sneak under his old national record of 1:30.46 set last year.
But while those two staked their teams to big leads, it was NC State that had the guns left at the end, overtaking IU for the win in the final leg.
That was courtesy of a blazing 1:30.77 from Justin Ress on the anchor leg. Andeas Vazaios led off in 1:31.32, Ryan Held was 1:31.09 and Jacob Molacek 1:32.13 as NC State defended its event title from last year and broke their own NCAA and U.S. Open records with a 6:05.31.
Indiana was also under the old NCAA and U.S. Open records, going 6:06.01, getting a 1:31.9 from Mohamed Samy and a pair of 1:32.2s from Vini Lanza and Ian Finnerty.
Texas, meanwhile, broke the American record – the top two teams each had international swimmers – in 6:07.59. That came courtesy of Haas, Jeff Newkirk (1:32.58), Jonathan Roberts (1:32.36) and Austin Katz (1:32.24).
Florida elected not to use Caeleb Dressel, settling for fourth in 6:09.52 with a 1:31.98 leadoff from Jan Switkowski. Khader Baqlah was also 1:31.64 on his leg.
imagine the time if the pool was only 20 Yards long …..
Thanks for the video! After day 1, it is clear this meet is bigger than the Olympics for real swimming fans. Americans and the many foreign nationals who swim in America are raised on SCY. We relate to it. It’s what we do. Then we beat the world with SCY roots, in LCM (medal count). Not to mention all the other international medalists who swim SCY at American unis. Stoked for the rest of this meet!
false.
I see it more as a really awesome distraction in the middle of the Olympic cycle.
Seliskar on fire too. Expecting big things from him.
love that kid
No full race video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Ngm0EnA_M&t=155s
The leadoff leg is a pretty interesting race. Pieroni went the new record (obviously), but Haas went basically went the old record time, and Seliskar essentially went the Simon Burnett time that stood for so long.
Is that Sam Kendricks that reflexively stands up and fist pumps after Pieroni’s swim? (He seems to be holding a mic, down at the bottom right hand side of the screen.)
Pretty fantastic.
I’d pay Sam Kendricks to say my name over a PA system
More like – “watch Blake Pieroni go 1:29.6….and then some other dudes swim”
fax but i heard schooling went 1:28 in practice
I feel like Pieroni’s leadoff is the real attraction here haha