Dyer sets school record on first day of championship

Notre Dame started off the NCAA championships with a bang Thursday in Austin, Texas, with a record-breaking performance on the first day of the meet.

            Irish senior Frank Dyer, a two-time All-American, set a school record in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:17.13. Dyer was already the program record-holder in the event, before he broke it again yesterday. With his record, Dyer has completed a sweep of every individual freestyle event for the Irish this season, including the 50 (19.57), the 100 (42.84), the 200 (1:33.20) and the 1000 (9:11.93). Junior All-American John Williamson was the second Irishman to touch the wall in the 500, clocking in at 4:29.57.

The Irish put on a strong performance right from the beginning of the championship, starting with the 200-yard freestyle relay. Senior co-captain Colin Babcock, junior All-American Kevin Hughes, sophomore Matthew Buerger, and freshman Tom Anderson combined for a time 1:20.93. For Babcock, Buerger and Anderson, it was their first time swimming in the NCAA championships.

For the second straight season, junior All-American Zach Stephens qualified for the 200IM and once again put forth a strong performance. His career-best finish of 1:45.52 was good enough to shave off .41 seconds from his performance at last season’s NCAA championship of 1:46.33.

Freshman diver Joe Cuomos made his NCAA debut in the one-meter diving event and totaled 324.10 points, which was good enough to finish in 19th place. The mark was not a high enough score for Cuomos to qualify for the evening’s finals session.

The Irish will resume competition today at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texas, at 11 a.m. The event will run all day, with the preliminary round of the 200 medley relay set to open up the second day’s events.