With Ryan Murphy starring in the pool, chants of “Cal-lif-ornia” echoed throughout Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center at the men’s NCAA swimming and diving championship on Friday night.
The atmosphere was fit for a champion or in Murphy’s case, a three-time champion.
Murphy won his third consecutive NCAA championship in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 43.49 seconds, the second sub-44 showing of the week. Murphy swam the first leg of the 400-meter medley relay in 43.51 seconds on Thursday, making him the first man to swim that distance in less than 44 seconds.
He was not preoccupied with the notion of the three-peat.
“I didn’t think about it at all.” Murphy said. “I was focused on my strategy; having good posture and having control of the first 25, then ripping it from there.”
Murphy was not the only swimmer writing new records.
Texas’ Townley Haas swam the 200-meter freestyle in one minute and 30.46 seconds, setting a new national record. The Longhorns also had Joseph Schooling break a national record in the 100-meter butterfly, posting a time of 44.01.
The four-day championship meet will wrap up after Saturday night’s events.
Going into the final day of competition, Texas sits atop the standings for the overall team championship title with 366 points.
The Longhorns are followed by California (271), Florida (255), N.C. State (197) and Georgia (162).
Georgia sophomore swimmers Jay Litherland and Gunner Bentz finished third and fourth respectively in the 400-meter individual medley, with Litherland posting a time of three minutes and 38.47 seconds, just edging out Bentz’s time of 3.38.59. Litherland said that finishing in sequence with his teammate was “awesome” and is an example of the team’s chemistry.
“I could not have asked for a better team than Georgia,” Litherland said. “From the coaches to the teammates, as soon as I was getting recruited by them, I knew this was the place I wanted to be.”
And that team unity is not just within the men’s swimming team, but the entire swimming program. Litherland said that seeing the UGA women’s team win the national championship last week motivated the men’s squad to perform well at their own events.
“It was such a great feeling to see them win,” Litherland said. “It definitely put some pressure on us.”
Murphy was the star of day.
The junior said that after Thursday’s sub-44 swim he knew he still could go a little faster, so tonight’s performance was not surprising. It did surprise head coach David Durden though.
“That’s pretty fast,” Durden said. “He’s beating some of our freestylers. That’s pretty darn fast.”
Murphy will assuredly be a factor in this summer’s Olympics, but will not have to wait five months for his next shot at glory. Murphy will swim the 200-backstroke on Saturday, an attempt to capture his second three-peat of the week. Murphy also had the chance to defend a team title for the third consecutive year in the 200-medley relay race and put the Golden Bears in a strong position to do so after the relay’s first leg. However, Cal was stunned by Alabama, who made a big run at the end and beat the Golden Bears to the wall by 21 hundredths of a second.
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