Sebastien Rouault controlled the 1650 freestyle the same way he did the 500 event earlier in the weekend. At the half way mark Texas star Michael Klueh was more than two seconds ahead of both Rouault and his Bulldog team mate Troy Prinsloo.
That is when both Rouault and Prinsloo began to make their move, at 1150 yards all three men hit the wall at almost the same time. By the 1200 yard mark the two Georgia distance men had put almost two seconds between themselves and Klueh.
When the bell rang it appeared that the NCAA record set by Michigan's Chris Thompson in 2001 was going to be broken, but it was déjà vu all over again. At the 2007 Championship Meet USC distance star Larsen Jensen narrowly missed Thompson's mark when he was ahead of record pace going into the final 50. This year Rouault was ahead of record pace at the 1600 yard mark only to miss the record by 24-1 hundredths of a second.
Rouault finished first in a time of 14:26.86, followed closely by his team mate Troy Prinsloo who finished in a time of 14:28.06, Klueh finished in third in a time of 14:36.07.
"We train all year for it. Today was just like training, every day is like that. We push each other, sometimes him on me, sometimes me on him," said Rouault when talking about his teammate Troy Prinsloo.
In the last individual event of the night the Bulldog men once again showed tremendous heart in one of swimming's most grueling events. At the 100 yard mark of the 200 butterfly freshman Mark Dylla had taken a slight lead over his team mate Gil Stovall. Stovall stormed home with the tremendous speed and intensity overtaking his teammate to finishing first in a NCAA record time of 1:41.33.
"I give a lot of credit to our freshman, Mark [Dylla], because I couldn't have done it without him as a training partner," explained Stovall. "He's amazing. He pushes me every day. I'd gotten into a little rut in my training, but he snapped me back into it. He's an amazing guy and he’s amazing to train with."
Dylla finished second in a time of 1:42.08, followed by Stanford senior Danny Beal who finished in a time of 1:42.79.
The philosophy of Georgia Head Coach Jack Bauerle seems to be clear, but it was confirmed by Stovall, "He's all about being tough. When it hurts, go harder. If you're hurting in practice, he understands but he doesn't care."