Jul 23-27, TBD
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Jul 31-Aug 3, TBD
ISCA Summer Elite Showcase
2017 NCAA DI Men's Swimming & Diving Championships

NCAA Day One Finals: Wolfpack Are Hunting, Shatter 800 F.R. NCAA Record

NCAA Day One Finals: Wolfpack Are Hunting, Shatter 800 F.R. NCAA Record

Full recap from day one finals at the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming & Diving Championships features the 800 freestyle relay. Ryan Held and NC State shatter the NCAA and US Open Record.

Mar 22, 2017 by Maclin Simpson
Men's NCAA Champs: 800 Free Relay Highlight

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800 FREESTYLE RELAY

NCAA Record: 6:08.03 (Texas, 2016) 6:06.53 (NC State, 2017)
Meet Record: 6:08.03 (Texas, 2016) 6:06.53 (NC State, 2017)
American Record: 6:10.16 (Texas, 2009)
US Open Record: 6:08.03 (Texas, 2016) 6:06.53 (NC State, 2017)

WOW. We knew NC State was good, but they just blew every expectation out of the water to win the 800 freestyle relay by over two seconds with a 6:06.53, over a second and a half faster than the previous NCAA, Meet, and US Open Record of Texas from 2016. ​Ryan Held​ got the Wolfpack off to a great start with a blazing 1:31.37 on the lead-off. He was followed by ​Andreas Vazaios ​(1:32.23), ​Justin Ress​ (1:32.26), and ​Soeren Dahl​ (1:30.67). Talk about consistency -- these guys did not have a weak leg. Texas grabbed the silver with a 6:08.61 led by ​Jack Conger ​(1:31.54) on the lead-off and ​Townley Haas​ (1:30.42) on the anchor. It would have been interesting to see how this race would have played out with ​Joseph Schooling​, but Texas still has a lot of cards to show and will bounce back. Florida rounded out the top three with a 6:09.30 led by very consistent relay splits from ​Jan Switkowski​ (1:32.44), ​Maxime Rooney​ (1:32.67), ​Mitch D'Arrigo​ (1:32.73), and ​Mark Szaranek​ (1:31.46).​

Of note, ​Blake Pieroni ​of Indiana and ​Dylan Carter​ of Southern Cal dropped the second and third fastest flat start 200 freestyles of all-time with a 1:30.87 and 1:30.95, respectively. The individual 200 freestyle on Friday is going to be one hell of a race...

1.) NC State: 6:06.53 (NCAA, Meet, & US Open Record)
2.) Texas: 6:08.61
3.) Florida: 6:09.30
4.) California: 6:09.56
5.) Southern Cal: 6:10.97
6.) Georgia: 6:12.54
7.) Stanford: 6:12.66
8.) Louisville: 6:12.81

TEAM SCORES

1.) NC State - 40
2.) Texas - 34
3.) Florida - 32
4.) California - 30 
5.) Southern Cal - 28
6.) Georgia - 26
7.) Stanford - 24
8.) Louisville - 22
9.) Indiana - 18
10.) Wisconsin - 14

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