Video produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Jared Anderson.
400 MEDLEY RELAY – FINALS
NCAA – 3:01.39 – Auburn – 2009Championship – 3:01.39 – Auburn – 2009American – 3:01.91 – Stanford – 2009US Open – 3:01.39 – Auburn – 2009- 2014 Champion – California – 3:02.66
The team race between Texas and Cal was front and center in the night’s final event, with both teams going under the previous American record.
Cal stormed to the lead early, with sophomore Ryan Murphy breaking the NCAA record with a 44.17 backstroke split on the way out. He handed off to breaststroker Chuck Katis,who was equally impressive – Katis split 50.12 on his leg, beating even reigning American record-holder Kevin Cordes of Arizona.
But suddenly Texas surged back. Though Cal freshman Justin Lynch split 45.47 on his fly leg, Texas rookie Joseph Schooling outdid that by a huge margin, blasting an absurd 43.93 to vault Texas into contention.
With Jack Conger anchoring, Texas quickly overtook Cal’s Seth Stubblefield. Conger kept the otherworldly splits going, taking his race out in 18.94 seconds to his feet at the flip turn, and ultimately split 40.96. That gave Texas the U.S. Open and NCAA records in 3:01.23. Also on that relay for Texas were Kip Darmody (45.39 back) and Will Licon (50.93 breast).
With Schooling representing Singapore internationally, that doesn’t count as the American record. But second-place Cal was also under the national time, and will take that record for their own with their 3:01.60, second-place showing. Stubblefield was 41.84 on the anchor leg for Cal.
Lost in all that madness was Alabama, who took third with a very-solid 3:04.46. That included a 45.08 from backstroker Conner Oslin and a 40.94 anchor leg on Kristian Gkolomeev. Hurting the Crimson Tide, though, was the breaststroke leg, where last year’s All-American Anton McKee was just 52.37.
Michigan took fourth, putting up a 3:05.18 to nip Auburn’s 3:05.38. Michigan had a 51.21 from breaststroker Richard Funk, plus a 41.84 on anchor Bruno Ortiz, who has had a busy first day. Auburn was also fast on those two legs, with Michael Duderstadtmatching Funk’s 51.21 exactly and Kyle Darmody anchored in 41.86.
Sixth went to Georgia, just .01 back of Auburn. The Bulldogs were led by Nic Fink, who hit a 51.51 on the breast leg, and also got a 45.78 from backstroker Taylor Dale.
Florida was 3:05.71 for seventh, getting a 42.19 from anchor Caeleb Dressel. That time shows the fatigue a little bit from Dressel, who had a great swim on the 200 free relay in addition to his NCAA Championship 50 free earlier in the night.
A rough night for NC State continued, as the Wolfpack seemed to mostly punt this relay in terms of entries, rather loading up their 200 free relay, which was of course DQ’d. NC State was 3:11.63, taking 8th.
Stanford rolled to the B final win, getting a quick 51.23 from David Nolan on the breaststroke leg and outrunning the rest of the field down the stretch. The Cardinal were 3:05.49 with Missouri second in 3:05.58. Those two wind up 9th and 10th overall. Missouri’s breaststroker Sam Tierney, who could be a high finisher in the individual breaststroke races, split 51.02 on his leg.
Okay, good interview, but Cal isn’t a hyped program? I’d say they’re second only to Texas in terms of hype.
This is a thing lots of teams do. The Patriots are famous for it. Convince themselves they are underdogs and everyone is picking against them. Even when it’s blatantly not true.
But here he may be talking specifically about Cal in relation to Texas… and this year the hype has been 100% Texas. Rightfully so, too.