SPORTS BRIEF: Alex Meyer Earns All-American Honors at Swimming NCAAs

Co-captain Alex Meyer traveled to Columbus, Ohio for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships seeded 20th in his only event. But after 15 minutes, the Crimson senior had left that ranking in the dust.

Meyer competed in the 1,650-yard freestyle last night in Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, taking 14th in a time of 14:58.14. By finishing in the top 16, Meyer earned All-American honors—the first such distinction for a male Harvard swimmer since Geoff Rathgeber ’08.

“I’m really happy with [the race],” Meyer said, “It was my first time under 15 minutes, and I dropped about seven seconds from my time at [the Ivy League Championships] a few weeks ago.”

Meyer’s personal best may have resulted from a bold new strategy—one that pushed the swimmer to his physical limits.

“My coach told me, ‘You’re going to go out and set the pace and try to hang on,’” Meyer explained. “I went out four or five seconds faster than I usually do in the first 500 [yards]. I could feel the difference. I was hurting pretty bad at the back end of the race.”

But Meyer did hold on, far outpacing his original seed to cap a stellar Crimson career with his first All-American distinction.

“It feels great,” Meyer said. “[Earning All-American honors] has been a goal since I came to Harvard.”

After demonstrating his potential to shatter previous times, though, Meyer is not ready to call it quits on a promising swimming career.

“I’m going to focus on open water,” Meyer said. “I want to keep training for the next year or two.”