Visit Swimming World's Event Landing Page for complete coverage, photo gallery and video interviews from the meet.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 26. FLORIDA's Conor Dwyer, a transfer from Iowa, had just enough in the tank to hold off a proud, hard-charging Jean Basson of Arizona in the 500 free.
Dwyer put together a strong time of 4:13.64 to win the event, and beat his preliminary pool record of 4:15.20. The win is Florida's second ever in the event. Matt Cetlinski is the only previous Gator to win with a 4:15.19 in 1986.
"It's a true honor to win a race with such great competition," Dwyer said. "My aim was just to go out and try to help us win some races."
Basson, who won last year in 4:08.92, nearly caught Dwyer from lane eight with a 4:13.65. Dwyer's .01 triumph in the event is the closest margin of all time in the event in NCAA history. USC's Klete Keller held the previous record with a .04 conquest of Michigan's Chris Thompson, 4:14.67 to 4:14.71, in 2001.
USC's Clement Lefert took third overall in 4:13.77, while Stanford's David Mosko (4:13.92) and Ohio State's George Markovic (4:14.41) finished fourth and fifth.
Notably, Michigan's Hassaan Abdel Khalik, the second seed, broke his hand in prelims and wound up swimming through to an eighth-place effort of 4:55.68 to give Michigan team points.
Florida took the lead with 56 points, while Stanford stood second in 51. Arizona (43), California (40) and Michigan (38) completed the top five.
Swimming World's NCAA DI Men's Championships Notes Package Sponsored by Nike
