ATLANTA (AP) — Destin Lasco the 200 yard backstroke by more than a second Saturday night at McAuley Aquatic Center to help California win the men’s swimming and diving national title.
Cal, which has won two of the last three championships, finished with 487.5 points, 51 ahead of defending national champion and second-place Texas. Florida was third with 374.
In the second event on the fourth-and-final day of the NCAA championships, Lasco finished in 1 minute, 37.71 seconds and Cal teammate was third in 1:39.06 as the Golden Bears took control of the team competition. Carson Foster of Texas finished second in 1:38.77 but the Longhorns gave up their lead — for good.
Bobby Finke of Florida — who won two gold medals (800 meter freestyle and 1500 meter freestyle) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — cruised to a victory in the 1,650 yard freestyle in 14:22.28 seconds, shattering the pool record (14:29.43 by Georgia’s Sebastien Rouault in 2008). N.C. State’s Will Gallant finished second in 14:31.34.
LSU’s Curry Brooks won the 100 freestyle in 40.84 seconds and Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger finished second in 41-flat. Brooks edged Seeliger on Friday to win the 50 freestyle by three-hundredths of a second. Seeliger’s time in each of the preliminaries would have won that race’s finals.
Arizona State freshman Leon Marchand won the 200 breaststroke in 1:48.20.
Brendan Burns of Indiana became the first Hoosier to win the 200 butterfly in nearly 50 years, finishing in 1:38.71. Georgia’s Luca Urlando was second (1:38.82) and Louisville senior Nicolas Albiero, the defending national champion, third (1:38.88).
Tyler Downs, a freshman at Purdue, won platform diving with 447.20 points.
Texas won the 400 freestyle relay in a pool-record 2:46.03.
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