Lucas Lang \u201925, a computer science major at Harvey Mudd College, earned the national championship in the 1650-yard freestyle by a margin of just seven-hundredths of a second in a thrilling finish to highlight the final day of the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships March 23 at the Greensboro Aquatics Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lang, who was the runner up in the 1650 as a freshman in 2022, and then finished fifth a year ago, earned the title by taking 9.33 seconds off of his time time this season with a 15:17.48, edging Connor Vincent of NYU with a 15:17.55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lang trailed by almost four seconds after 1000 yards, but then made his move to surge ahead at the 1300-yard mark. He led by 1.3 seconds with 50 yards to go, but Vincent made a final push to try to catch him and it came down to the final reach to the wall after over 15 minutes of racing, with less than a tenth of a second separating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lang’s title makes it three years in a row that CMS swimming and diving has won a national championship. CMS ended up in 13th place in the team competition with 141 points over the four-day meet with 141 points. It was a big drop-off from 13th to 14th, where Johns Hopkins finished with 90.<\/p>\n\n\n\n