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FEDERAL WAY, Washington, March 24. GEORGIA's Martin Grodzki and Stanford's Chad La Tourette brought the crowd to its feet with the two –fastest times in men's 1650-yard freestyle history at the NCAA Division I Men's Championships.
Grodzki, a German native, won the race in 14:24.08 to better Chris Thompson's U.S. Open and NCAA record from 2001 of 14:26.62 — 11 years earlier to the day. Meanwhile, Stanford's Chad La Tourette, an American, now holds the American record with a 14:24.35 in the closest ever 1650 free race in NCAA history. The .27-second margin of victory for Grodzki bettered the NCAA record of .40 set by Roy Saari of Southern California. Saari (17:08.17) downed Utah's Mike Garibaldi (17:08.57) back in 1966. Grodzki won Georgia's fourth title in the mile, joining Sebastien Rouault (2006, 08) and Troyden Prinsloo (2009).
Michigan's Connor Jaeger (14:35.14), Auburn's Zane Grothe (14:37.59), Georgia's Andrew Gemmell (14:41.86), Michigan's Sean Ryan (14:41.92), Florida State's Mateo De Angulo (14:42.77) and Texas' Michael McBroom (14:43.83) rounded out the top eight.
California held the lead with 385.5 points, while Texas stood second with 354.5 points. Stanford (300), Arizona (283) and Michigan (230) owned the rest of the top five.
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