FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) — California defended its title in the 800-yard freestyle relay at the NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships on Wednesday night, and the Golden Bears trail first-place Texas by two points in the team standings after Day 1.
Cal finished with a time of 5:59.75 to set new NCAA and US Open records — one year after touching in 6:02.26 to win the event at the national championships for the first time since 1986. The Longhorns lowered their mark by over three seconds at 6:00.08 to come in second.
Texas started the NCAAs with the program’s best 200 medley relay time of 1:20.28. The Longhorns were awarded first place after apparent winner Florida was disqualified following a review that determined an early departure from the Gators’ anchor. Florida thought it won with a NCAA-record time of 1:20.05.
Cal’s Björn Seeliger, Yamato Okadome, Dare Rose and Jack Alexy placed third in 200 with school record time of 1:20.76.
There are four swimming finals and a diving final on Thursday at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center.
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