Blake Pieroni Becomes First Man Under 1:30 in 200 Free, Leads Off Relay in 1:29.63; Townley Haas Also Under Old Record

Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold / Aringo Photos

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Leading off Indiana’s 4×200 free relay in the first event of the men’s NCAA championships, Indiana’s Blake Pieroni became the first man to break 1:30 in the men’s 200-yard free. Pieroni came in at 1:29.63, annihilating the previous mark of 1:30.46 set by Texas’ Townley Haas two years ago.

Haas led off for Texas and swam two lanes over from Pieroni, and Haas finished under his old record as well, coming in at 1:30.41.

NC State ended up edging Texas for the win in the relay, 6:05.31 to 6:06.01, both under the previous American record. A full recap of that event can be found here. (FULL RESULTS)

Event 1  Men 800 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
         NCAA: N 6:06.53  3/22/2017 NC State
                          R Held, A Vazaros, J Ress, S Dahl
     American: A 6:08.61  3/22/2017 Texas
                          J Conger, J Newkirk, C Smith, T Haas
   U. S. Open: O 6:06.53  3/22/2017 NC State
                          R Held, A Vazaros, J Ress, S Dahl
 Championship: C 6:06.53  3/22/2017 NC State
                          R Held, A Vazaios, J Ress, S Dahl
         Pool: P 6:14.14  3/16/2007 Arizona
                          N Nilo, J Basson, D Townsend, A Ritter
    School                           Seed     Finals NISCA Points
==================================================================================
  1 NC State                      6:12.92    6:05.31N        40  
     1) Andreas Vazaios JR            2) r:0.12 Ryan Held SR          
     3) r:0.27 Jacob Molacek JR       4) Justin Ress JR               
    r:+0.05  21.46        44.38 (44.38)
      1:07.55 (1:07.55)   1:31.32 (1:31.32)
        1:51.77 (20.45)     2:15.14 (43.82)
      2:38.71 (1:07.39)   3:02.41 (1:31.09)
        3:22.70 (20.29)     3:46.19 (43.78)
      4:10.34 (1:07.93)   4:34.54 (1:32.13)
        4:54.83 (20.29)     5:17.86 (43.32)
      5:41.23 (1:06.69)   6:05.31 (1:30.77)
  2 Indiana                       6:11.50    6:06.01N        34  
     1) Blake Pieroni SR              2) r:0.22 Mohamed Samy SO       
     3) r:0.31 Vini Lanza JR          4) Ian Finnerty JR              
    r:+0.35  20.89        43.53 (43.53)
      1:06.45 (1:06.45)   1:29.63 (1:29.63)
        1:50.61 (20.98)     2:13.83 (44.20)
      2:37.51 (1:07.88)   3:01.57 (1:31.94)
        3:22.61 (21.04)     3:46.30 (44.73)
      4:10.25 (1:08.68)   4:33.80 (1:32.23)
        4:54.90 (21.10)     5:18.03 (44.23)
      5:41.92 (1:08.12)   6:06.01 (1:32.21)
  3 Texas                         6:14.25    6:07.59A        32  
     1) Townley Haas JR               2) r:0.27 Jeff Newkirk JR       
     3) r:0.23 Jonathan Roberts SR    4) Austin Katz FR               
    r:+0.32  20.87        43.74 (43.74)
      1:07.06 (1:07.06)   1:30.41 (1:30.41)
        1:51.47 (21.06)     2:14.41 (44.00)
      2:38.33 (1:07.92)   3:02.99 (1:32.58)
        3:24.07 (21.08)     3:47.47 (44.48)
      4:11.33 (1:08.34)   4:35.35 (1:32.36)
        4:56.32 (20.97)     5:19.46 (44.11)
      5:43.48 (1:08.13)   6:07.59 (1:32.24)
  4 Florida                       6:12.06    6:09.52P        30  
     1) Jan Switkowski SR             2) r:0.22 Khader Baqlah SO      
     3) r:0.36 Maxime Rooney SO       4) Mark Szaranek SR             
    r:+0.26  21.28        44.18 (44.18)
      1:07.61 (1:07.61)   1:31.98 (1:31.98)
        1:52.55 (20.57)     2:15.73 (43.75)
      2:39.41 (1:07.43)   3:03.62 (1:31.64)
        3:24.32 (20.70)     3:47.68 (44.06)
      4:11.80 (1:08.18)   4:36.88 (1:33.26)
        4:57.56 (20.68)     5:20.53 (43.65)
      5:44.59 (1:07.71)   6:09.52 (1:32.64)
  5 Georgia                       6:21.01    6:12.75P        28  
     1) Jay Litherland SR             2) r:0.34 Javier Acevedo SO     
     3) r:0.42 Gunnar Bentz SR        4) Walker Higgins SO            
    r:+0.15  21.76        45.32 (45.32)
      1:09.15 (1:09.15)   1:33.89 (1:33.89)
        1:54.87 (20.98)     2:18.32 (44.43)
      2:42.75 (1:08.86)   3:07.11 (1:33.22)
        3:23.89 (16.78)     3:51.41 (44.30)
      4:15.46 (1:08.35)   4:39.44 (1:32.33)
        5:00.91 (21.47)     5:24.41 (44.97)
      5:48.50 (1:09.06)   6:12.75 (1:33.31)
  6 California                    6:13.30    6:13.38P        26  
     1) Andrew Seliskar JR            2) r:0.22 Zheng Quah SO         
     3) r:0.45 Matthew Josa SR        4) Michael Jensen SO            
    r:+0.09  21.15        44.28 (44.28)
      1:07.56 (1:07.56)   1:31.28 (1:31.28)
        1:52.26 (20.98)     2:16.15 (44.87)
      2:40.17 (1:08.89)   3:05.14 (1:33.86)
        3:26.12 (20.98)     3:49.89 (44.75)
      4:14.13 (1:08.99)   4:38.94 (1:33.80)
        4:59.93 (20.99)     5:23.32 (44.38)
      5:47.95 (1:09.01)   6:13.38 (1:34.44)
  7 Louisville                    6:16.88    6:13.49P        24  
     1) Nicolas Albiero FR            2) r:0.18 Zach Harting JR       
     3) r:0.13 Andrej Barna SO        4) Sam Steele SO                
    r:+0.30  21.74        45.60 (45.60)
      1:09.30 (1:09.30)   1:33.11 (1:33.11)
        1:54.05 (20.94)     2:17.47 (44.36)
      2:41.22 (1:08.11)   3:05.22 (1:32.11)
        3:26.14 (20.92)     3:50.06 (44.84)
      4:13.92 (1:08.70)   4:39.13 (1:33.91)
        5:00.51 (21.38)     5:24.23 (45.10)
      5:48.63 (1:09.50)   6:13.49 (1:34.36)
  8 Stanford                      6:17.98    6:14.75         22  
     1) Abrahm DeVine JR              2) r:0.17 Liam Egan SR          
     3) r:0.41 James Murphy SO        4) Grant Shoults SO             
    r:+0.23  21.53        45.08 (45.08)
      1:08.92 (1:08.92)   1:32.77 (1:32.77)
        1:54.83 (22.06)     2:18.77 (46.00)
      2:42.90 (1:10.13)   3:06.73 (1:33.96)
        3:28.13 (21.40)     3:52.06 (45.33)
      4:16.86 (1:10.13)   4:41.54 (1:34.81)
        5:03.30 (21.76)     5:26.92 (45.38)
      5:50.53 (1:08.99)   6:14.75 (1:33.21)

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29 Comments

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Kara Muscillo

6 years ago

Whhhhhaaat?! Lightning

Rochelle Kelvos

6 years ago

Peter Spagnuolo 1:29:6 for a 200 Free! Unbelievable!!

Ryan Lochte

6 years ago

Reply to Rochelle Kelvos

It was blake pieroni dude not spagnuolo, Bitch!

John Oscar Myers

6 years ago

Wow, fast

Patrick Bohen

6 years ago

WOW ?

Kara Muscillo

6 years ago

Reply to Patrick Bohen

Seriously fast….thats practically negative splitting each 50

Keven Henley

6 years ago

What….WHAT?!!!

Peter Spagnuolo

6 years ago

Holy Cow, that’s unbelievable

Lelah Olender

6 years ago

Anyone find a video yet?

Vicki Marsh

6 years ago

Wow. Awesome!!!!!

dunc1952

6 years ago

Top 4 all had major records:
1. NC State — Fastest 800 Free relay time in history
2. Indiana — Fastest individual flat start 200 Free time in history by Pieroni
3. Texas – broke its own American record, as NC State and Indiana each had non-Americans on their
squads
4. Florida — Coach Greg Troy set and all time record for depressing swim blog fandom by not having Caeleb on the Florida squad! The still managed a fine 6:09.52 without him, 0:04.21 back from NC State’s winning/record finish. But since we are, after all, talking internet trolling and speculation here, had Dressel been substituted for Florida’s slowest leg (former USA Swimming 200 LCM Free national champion Maxime Rooney who swam a rolling start 3rd leg 1:33.26). he would have had to better Rooney by 0:4.22 for Florida to win; 1:33.26 – :4.22 = 1:29.04, essentially an identical swim from a rolling start as Pieroni’s flat start masterpiece. Let the arguments begin. I’m an IU grad and was thrilled to see Blake as the first swimmer under this barrier, just as his IU predecessor Mark Spitz was the first under 1:40 with a 1:39.5 at the 1969 NCAA at IU, it is tempting to lean toward Caeleb considering how well he handled the 200 distance in his IM at SECs last month and his speed advantage, :18.20/:40.00 v. Blake’s PB of :41.43 at Big10s, though Pieroni has clearly advanced since then; but how much?

Just waiting to see how long it takes for some Ivy League hackers to talk about Dean Farris breaking a minute! How Fun*&*&*&!!