Townley Haas on 1:29.5 200 Free National Title: “It means everything”

^{Reported by Jared Anderson.}

200 FREESTYLE – FINALS

• NCAA record: Blake Pieroni (Indiana), 2018, 1:29.63
• American record: Blake Pieroni (Indiana), 2018, 1:29.63
• U.S. Open record: Blake Pieroni (Indiana), 2018, 1:29.63
• 2017 NCAA Champion: Townley Haas (Texas), 1:30.65

Top 8 Finishers:

1. Townley Haas, Texas – 1:29.50
2. Blake Pieroni, Indiana – 1:30.23
3. Zach Apple, Auburn – 1:31.18
4. Mohamed Samy, Indiana – 1:31.73
5. Khader Baqlah, Florida – 1:31.98
6. Dean Farris, Harvard – 1:32.12
7. Dylan Carter, USC – 1:32.68
8. Bryce Mefford, Cal – 1:33.13

Texas’s Townley Haas wanted that American record back, apparently. The junior flew through the individual 200 free, going out in a blistering 43.12 to break Pieroni’s two-day-old American record with a 1:29.50.

Blake Pieroni looked like he was closing for a brief moment, but ultimately had to settle for second place in 1:30.23 – still the third-fastest swim of all-time and Pieroni’s 9th swim of the meet so far.

Auburn’s Zach Apple was third in 1:31.18 as his range continues to expand drastically. Indiana put two into the top four, with Mohamed Samy moving up to 4th in 1:31.73.

Florida’s Khader Baqlah was also under 1:32 in a blindingly fast field. Dean Farris took sixth for Harvard with USC’s Dylan Carter and Cal’s Bryce Mefford rounding out the field.

Texas’s Jeff Newkirk came through with a huge swim for the Horns in the B final, going 1:33.15 to win the heat by .01 seconds. That’s a +5 points-wise for Texas. Behind him by a single hundredth was Missouri’s Mikel Schreuders (1:33.16) and then Ohio State’s Paul Delakis (1:33.17).

Back-to-back heat wins wasn’t enough to put Texas into the lead, but it was enough to cut Cal’s lead to 7.5 points. Indiana is 10.5 back and Florida 13.5. NC State is really feeling the loss of Justin Ress, who would have scored double-digit points if not for a back injury, and is now 33.5 points out of first place with no breaststroking scorer and no divers.