Texas Blows Roof Off Pool With American, NCAA, U.S. Open Record to Win 800 Free Relay

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 27. THE University of Texas held off a hard charge from Arizona to end the Wildcats' three-year winning streak in the 800-yard free relay. And, the Longhorns did it with an American, NCAA and U.S. Open record.

Dave Walters leadoff the Texas relay with an American-record time of 1:31.72. That swim beat the 1:31.83 he set back in December and is the third-fastest 200 free of all time. Only Simon Burnett's NCAA and U.S. Open record 1:31.20 and Florida's Shaune Fraser's 1:31.70 posted this evening to win the individual title are faster.

Walters, Ricky Berens (1:32.15), Scott Jostes (1:33.20) and Michael Klueh (1:33.09) then finished off the relay American, NCAA, and U.S. Open record with a combined 6:10.16. The swim broke the previous record of 6:10.55 set by Texas last year at Big 12s.

The triumph gave Texas an NCAA-leading 10th title in the distance relay event. Texas previously won in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003.

Texas jumped back into the lead with Auburn taking eighth in 6:21.86. Texas will enter the final day of action with 348 points, ahead of Auburn's second-place 342. Stanford (298.5), California (239) and Arizona (229) made up the rest of the top five.



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NCAA Results Day 1
200 IM Prelim
3. Ricky Berens - 1:41.98

200IM Final
3. Ricky Berens - 1:41.98

Junior Ricky Berens took down Nate Dusing's eight-year-old school mark in the 200 IM and placed third in 1:41.92. The time fell well under Dusing's school standard of 1:42.85 set at the 2001 NCAA Championships in College Station.

NCAA Results Day 2
200 Freestyle Prelim
1 Ricky Berens - 1:32.73

200 Medley Relay Prelim
T2. TEXAS (Jostes 21.31, Magruder 24.08, Berens 20.78, Feigen 18.45) - 1:24.62

200 Freestyle Final
3. Ricky Berens - 1:32.74

800 Freestyle Relay - Championship Final
1 TEXAS (Walters, 1:31.72, Berens 1:32.15, Jostes 1:33.20, Klueh 1:33.09)- 6:10.16 (new NCAA, NCAA meet, American, U.S. Open, UT records)

The Texas quartet of juniors Dave Walters and Ricky Berens, sophomore Scott Jostes and senior Michael Klueh ended day two of the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships with a thrilling victory in the 800-yard freestyle relay that set new American, NCAA, NCAA meet and U.S. Open records Friday at Texas A&M's Student Rec Center Natatorium.

The relay, one of three American record-setting efforts on the day for Texas, marked UT's first victorious 800 freestyle relay at the NCAA Championships since 2003 and regained the overall team lead for the Longhorns after the second day of action.

NCAA Results Day 3
200 Butterfly Prelim
24. Ricky Berens - 1:44.58