Reported by Jaren Anderson.
200 YARD FREESTYLE – FINALS
- NCAA record: 1:30.46, Townley Haas (Texas) 2016
- American record: 1:30.46, Townley Haas (Texas) 2016
- U.S. Open record: 1:30.46, Townley Haas (Texas) 2016
- 2016 NCAA Champion: Townley Haas (Texas) – 1:30.46
Top 3:
- Townley Haas, Texas – 1:30.65
- T-2: Blake Pieroni, Indiana – 1:31.16
- T-2: Dylan Carter, USC – 1:31.16
USC’s Dylan Carter pushed an early pace with half a body length lead over defending champ Townley Haas of Texas, but his big underwaters used up his legs early on. Haas swam a better tactical race, taking over the lead through the middle of the race and pushing in to a 1:30.65 win.
That’s the second-best performance of all-time despite a bit of a rough finish for the Longhorn sophomore. Carter held on to tie for second place with Indiana’s Blake Pieroni. Both men were 1:31.16, tying for the 5th-fastest performance all-time. Carter and Pieroni were both a bit faster on Wednesday night, leading off their team’s relays in 1:30s.
Next came the two freshmen who had the nation’s top times out of the conference rounds. Harvard’s Dean Farris went 1:32.25 for fourth and Arizona State’s Cameron Craig 1:32.46 for fifth, proving they could hold up to the tough NCAA spotlight.
Florida’s junior world record-holder (in long course meters) Maxime Rooney was sixth in 1:32.79. Rooney is also a freshman, with the future of this event at the NCAA level suddenly looking very bright. NC State’s Soeren Dahl (1:32.98) and Wisconsin’s Brett Pinfold (1:33.57) rounded out the championship heat.
Coming out of Dressel’s massive 100 fly win, Jan Switkowski made it two heat wins in a row for Florida, taking the B final in 1:32.51. That won by seven tenths of a second.