GREENSBORO, N.C. - Lucas Lang earned the national championship in the 1650-yard freestyle for the second year in a row, taking first place in 15:18.01 on the final day of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday at the Greensboro Aquatics Center. 

Last year was a dramatic finish, as Lang held on to win by just seven-hundredths of a second over Connor Vincent of NYU in 15:17.48. This time around, there was less drama, as he surged into the lead at the midway point and held a lead of two body lengths down the stretch. 

Tyler Distenfeld of Denison ended up in second place with a time of 15:20.19, a margin of just over two seconds. Vincent ended up fourth in his attempt to win the rematch. 

It marks the fourth year in a row that the Stags have had a national champion. Frank Applebaum took first in the 200 fly in both 2022 and 2023, while Lang has won the last two titles in the 1650. 

In other action on Saturday, Evan Deedy set a new program record in the 200 breast by breaking two minutes for the first time in his career in prelims, finishing in 1:59.24, to break a mark that had stood since 2009 (Vincent Pai, 1:59.90), and then took over a half-second off that mark with a 1:58.86 to win the consolation final and finish ninth.

Deedy earned second-team All-America honors for the second day in a row, after breaking his own CMS record in the 100 breast on Friday, when he also came in ninth with a consolation final victory. 

CMS finished the meet in 20th place, as Lang also earned first-team All-America honors in the 500 with a third-place finish, and Jeremy Tan captured second-team All-America honors in the 100 back. Deedy, Tan, Dylan Krueger and Theo Johnson were also second-team All-America in both the 200-medley and the 400-medley relays.