INDIANAPOLIS – Texas rising junior and Olympics gold medalist Townley Haas claimed his second consecutive U.S. national title in the 200-meter freestyle and added two additional World Championships berths Wednesday evening at the 2017 USA Swimming National Championships.
Haas, the fifth-place overall finisher in the 200m freestyle at the 2016 Olympic Games, claimed the same event Wednesday night in 1:45.03, good for the No. 2 time in the world this year behind Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang of China. His winning time dipped well below his 1:45.58 from the Olympic final in Rio, and he eclipsed the second-place finisher, Indiana's Blake Pieroni, by well over a second.