Hugo Gonzalez of Cal won the 400 IM with an NCAA record of 3:32.88

2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships

Men’s 400m individual medley – finals

• NCAA record: Chase Kalish, Georgia – 3:33.42 (2017)
• NCAA Meet record: Chase Kalish, Georgia – 3:33.42 (2017)
• American Record: Chase Kalish, Georgia – 3:33.42 (2017)
• US Open Record: Chase Kalish, Georgia – 3:33.42 (2017)
• Pool record: Carson Foster, Texas – 3:33.79 (2022)

Podium:

Cal Senior Hugo Gonzalez became the first swimmer in history to break the 3:33 barrier in the 400-yard individual medley on Friday night in Atlanta. He dominated the Finals from start to finish and broke NCAA, meetup, US Open and pool records with his 3:32.88 win time.

Gonzalez has come a long way. He spent his first season at Auburn where he set school records in the 200 m (1:39.05), 200 m (1:40.67) and 400 m (3:35.76). He won the 400 IM, at the time the third fastest total in history, at the 2018 SEC and was named the SEC Freshman of the Year. That same year at the NCAA, he swam 3:46.19 in the preliminaries to finish 30th.

Gonzalez announced that he would transfer to Virginia Tech in his sophomore year following Sergio Lopez, who took over as head coach. However, after a couple of weeks in the 2018-19 school year, he left Virginia Tech to train at home in Spain. In December 2018, he announced that he would be joining the Cal team mid-season in January. However, because he was enrolled in the VT day division before he left for Spain, he was considered ineligible by the NCAA until the fall of 2020.

At the 2021 NCAA, Gonzalez added 3.6 seconds in the preliminaries to finish 10th in 3:41.91. He won the B final with a pool record of 3:36.73, a time that would have won the A final with 0.17 (Bobby Fincke won 3:36.90).

This is a race that was in Gonzalez alone. He shortened the middle of his race considerably, and although his freestyle was a full second slower than last year, his butterfly was 1.5 seconds faster, which more than made up for the finish.

Compared to Chase Kalisch, who held the NCAA, American and US Open records since 2017, Gonzalez trailed 1.3 seconds faster in flight, swam a comparable stage backstroke and lost 0.8 in the second half (0.3 chest and .5 on the free).

Comparative running time: