Arizona State's Leon Marchand repeats as 200 individual medley champion

Arizona State sophomore Leon Marchand, the defending champion in the 200-yard individual medley, won that event again and broke his own record Thursday on the second day of the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.

Marchand, of Toulouse, France, had a time of 1 minute, 36.34 seconds — more than a second faster than his NCAA record of 1:37.69 set in this meet a year ago.

The day before, Marchand was a key member on the Sun Devils' two runner-up relays with record-breaking breaststroke and freestyle splits.

In the 500 freestyle Thursday, Texas teammates Luke Hobson and David Johnston went 1-2. Hobson's time of 4:07.37 was a pool record. Johnston finished in 4:08.79.

Two Gophers, sophomore Bar Soloveychik and junior Chris Nagy, swam in the 500 freestyle preliminaries.

Soloveychik placed 24th (4:15.87) with his third-fastest time of the season. He was a little over two seconds shy of 16th place, the last spot advancing to the consolation finals. Nagy was 43rd (4:22.27) after his fourth-best time of the season.

In the only other individual final on the meet's second day, Jordan Crooks of Tennessee took first (18.32) in the 50 freestyle.

In the first diving event of the meet, Lyle Yost of Ohio State took first (443.95 points) and Andrew Capobianco of Indiana second (439.35) on the 1-meter springboard.

Florida won the night's final event, the 200 freestyle relay in 1:13.35 — breaking Auburn's NCAA record of 1:14.08 set in 2009. It was the fourth meet record during the first two days.

Defending team champion California was second in the 200 freestyle relay, also under Auburn's time, in 1:13.82.

Through seven events, California was in first place in the team standings with 150 points, Texas second (141) and Arizona State third (126).

On Friday, four Gophers will compete: junior Kaiser Neverman in the 100 butterfly, Soloveychik in the 200 freestyle, fifth-year senior Max McHugh in the 100 breaststroke and freshman Drew Bennett on the 3-meter springboard.

In addition, finals also will be held in the 400 individual medley, 100 backstroke and 400 medley relay

McHugh is the two-time defending champion in the 100 breaststroke but he is the second seed this year. Florida freshman Aleksas Savickas has a better time (50.73) than McHugh (50.80) this season.

Savickas is from Panevezys, Lithuania, and he was second in the 100 breaststroke at the European Junior Championships. And he is mature for a freshman, 20 years of age already.

McHugh won the 200 breaststroke two years ago in the NCAA meet and finished second behind Marchand last year, 1:48.20 to 1:48.76.

The 200 breaststroke finals are Saturday night. Marchand is the top seed (1:47.67), Savickas is second (1:50.08) and McHugh third (1:50.20).