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Texas Steamrolls Through Day 3 at NCAA Division I Men's Championships

Texas won three events, smashed an NCAA record and maintained control of the team standings Friday evening on day three at the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. 
 
The Longhorns finished an explosive finals session by setting NCAA, U.S. Open and NCAA Championship meet records in the 200-yard medley relay. Sophomore John Shebat, senior Will Licon and juniors Joseph Schooling and Brett Ringgold finished off UT’s first win in the event since 2003 in 1 minute, 21.54 seconds, well under the previous NCAA and U.S. Open record of 1:22.27 set by Michigan at the 2013 NCAA Championships. The relay smashed the school record of 1:22.75 set by Shebat, Licon, Schooling and Murray a year ago at the NCAA Championships. 
 
Licon became the first Longhorn and just the fourth swimmer ever in college swimming to win four separate individual events throughout his collegiate career at the NCAA Championships. Licon, who already counted NCAA titles in the 200 IM, 400 IM and the 200 breaststroke, won his first NCAA title in the 100 breaststroke at 50.68, good for school and pool records. Licon became UT’s first NCAA champion in the event since Brendan Hansen in 2004.
 
The El Paso native is the first college swimmer to win NCAA individual titles in four separate events since Arizona’s Ryk Neethling in 2000.
 
Sophomore Townley Haas defended his NCAA title in the 200 freestyle and went back-to-back in the event at 1:30.65, just off of his NCAA and American record of 1:30.46 from 2016. The Richmond, Virginia, native won his third NCAA individual crown to go with his 2016 titles in the 200 and 500 freestyles. Haas also finished as the runner-up to teammate Clark Smith in Thursday’s 500 freestyle championship final.  Sophomore Jeff Newkirk added a couple of points for Texas with his seventh-place time of 1:33.88 in the consolation final. 
 
Texas kicked off night three of the four-day meet by picking up 18 points from its finalists in the 400-yard individual medley. All-America junior Jonathan Roberts posted a personal-best time of 3:38.18 on his way to a sixth-place finish in the championship final. Sophomore Sam Stewart added five points by way of his fourth-place mark of 3:42.92 in the event’s consolation final. 
 
Texas sent Schooling and senior Jack Conger to the 100 butterfly championship final and added 33 points from that final alone. Schooling took second and dipped below his previous NCAA-record time of 43.75 while Conger placed third at 44.35. Florida’s Caeleb Dressel took the win in an NCAA record of 43.58. Junior Brett Ringgold placed fourth in the consolation final at 45.89.
 
Shebat reset the school record for a third time this week in the 100 backstroke, as he finished as the national runner-up at 44.35 seconds. Shebat took the record for himself in Thursday’s 400 medley relay preliminary round and lowered it to 44.58 seconds in that relay’s final Thursday evening.
 
Freshman diver Grayson Campbell qualified for his first NCAA Championships final and placed eighth overall in the three-meter diving final with 411.85 points to add 11 points to the Longhorns’ tally. 
 
Texas holds first place through three of four days of competition with 391.5 points. California sits in second with 253 points while Florida holds third with 224.5 points. N.C. State is in fourth place with 196 points and Indiana rounds out the top-five with 189.5 points. 
 
Day four of the NCAA Championships gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m. CT with finals set for 5 p.m. CT.

Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 14                      
 
  1. Texas                           391.5   2. California                        253
  3. Florida                         224.5   4. NC State                          196
  5. Indiana                         189.5   6. Stanford                          160
  7. Southern Cali                   142.5   8. Univ of Georgia              141
  9. Missouri                        135.5  10. Louisville                      102.5
 11. Auburn                          100.5  12. Alabama                            98
 13. Arizona State                      68  14. South Carolina                  60
 15. Purdue                             57  16. Texas A&M                          56
 17. Tennessee                          55  18. Michigan                           46
 19. Wisconsin                          33  19. Ohio St                            33
 21. University of Miami                31  22. Lsu                                28
 22. Virginia Tech                      28  24. Harvard                            21
 25. Arizona                          19.5  26. Minnesota                          18
 27. Penn St                            16  28. Notre Dame                         12
 28. Duke                               12  30. George Washington                9
 31. Denver                              7  31. Florida State                       7
 33. UNC                                 6  34. Kentucky                            4
 34. Northwestern                        4  36. Cornell                             3
 37. Hawaii                              2  37. Penn                                2
 39. Pittsburgh                          1 

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