UA swimmers set 2 records, sit in 3rd at NCAAs

By foxsports
Published

Arizona won two individual events, one relay and broke two American records while moving up to third place in the team standings on Friday at the NCAA Men's Swimming Championships in Federal Way, Wash.

The highlight of the day was the 200 medley relay team of Adam Small, Mitchell Friedemann, Giles Smith and Kevin Cordes setting an NCAA and American record with a time of 1:23.88.

“The 200 medley relay has been a target for us all season,” Arizona head coach Eric Hansen said. “We have some versatility and those four kids really stepped up and got it done. We knew that would be a momentum builder.”

In the second race of the evening, senior Austen Thompson of Chandler won the 400 individual medley in a time of 3:39.15, breaking Jack Brown's school record by more than two seconds.

Cordes, a freshman from Naperville, Ill., gave the Wildcats a third victory when he won the 100 breaskstroke in 51.32 seconds, breaking the American record of 51.35 set by Michael Alexandrov in 2010.
 
Other notable performances on Friday includes a second place for Smith in the 100 butterfly, fourth for Carl Mickelson in the 100 breaststroke and sixth for Friedemann in the 100 backstroke. Arizona's 800 freestyle relay team of Cory Chitwood, Cameron Owen, Woody Joye and Matt Barber placed sixth.

“I think we had a great night,” Hansen said. “I am really proud of the way these guys rebounded. For Austen and our breaststrokers to come in and do what they did was really special.”

California leads in the team standings with 379.5 points heading into the meet's final day. Texas (343.5) is second, Arizona (283) third and Stanford (277) fourth.