Two-gold winner Schooling pleased with NCAA relay displays

INDIANA — Joseph Schooling has expressed his satisfaction with his performances on the first day of the NCAA Championships after winning two team relay golds and an individual bronze.

The University of Texas (UT) undergrad contributed to his varsity’s wins in the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relays on Thursday night (March 23), the latter in a new NCAA and US Open record time.

In the 200-yard final, UT was trailing behind the University of Florida, after the first three legs.

Schooling then powered Texas into the lead in the anchor leg and touched home in 18.34sec to stop the clock in 1min 14.59sec.

Florida – led by Olympic double-gold winner Caeleb Dressel – were second in 1:14.88 while the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), took bronze (1:15.29).

Dressel was too fast though for Schooling in the 50-yard freestyle final. He won in 18.23sec, ahead of North Carolina State’s Ryan Head (18.60) and Schooling (18.79). But Schooling returned to help UT successfully defend its 400-yard relay title.

Swimming the butterfly leg, he finished two body lengths ahead of his nearest rival to enable freestyle specialist Jack Conger to race home in a new NCAA and US Open record time of 2:59.22, ahead of UCB (3:01.51).

“I am definitely happy with my performances in the relays,” said Singapore’s 100m butterfly Olympic champion. "I did a 43.6 for the 400 medley relay, better than the NCAA time of 44.01 I did last year. And I think I did well to help the team win the 200 free relay."

“And that is all that matters, to put points on the board for Texas. Of course, I was a little disappointed with the 50 free but it’s ok.

“I still have two days of competition, and as a team, we know the events over the next two days are ours, so we just need to continue the momentum.”

Both Schooling and fellow Singaporean Quah Zheng Wen, representing UCB, will race in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly to be held over the weekend. The duo qualified for the 100-yard final on Friday morning (Friday night, Singapore time) with Schooling clocking 44.97sec in his heat to finish third fastest overall, and Quah emerging fifth fastest with his heat time of 45.27.