National Dual Meet Swimming Championships : Morales Sets World Record; Stanford Teams Beat Texas

Pablo Morales set a world record in the 200-meter individual medley and Jenna Johnson established an American mark in the 50-meter freestyle Sunday as the Stanford men’s and women’s teams defeated Texas in the Avis National Dual Meet Swimming Championships at USC.

Betsy Mitchell of Texas swam the 100-meter backstroke in 59.89 seconds to set a world mark, but the Texas women’s team lost to the Cardinal, 59-54. Stanford’s NCAA champion men’s team defeated the Longhorns, 73-38.

Morales, who set an American record in the 200-meter individual medley in Saturday’s semifinals, swam the same distance in 1:58.18 Sunday to top the old mark of 1:58.22 set by Alex Baumann of Canada last March.

“I went into the meet with a certain race strategy and tried to be as aggressive as possible,” Morales said. “At the NCAA meet, I was a little too excited and therefore I was tense.”

Morales, a gold medalist in the 1984 Olympics, also helped Stanford establish a world record in the 400-meter medley relay with a time of 3:37.36. The old record of 3:37.96 was set last February by West Germany.

John Witchel of Stanford set an American record in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:46.46. The old record of 1:47.29 was set by David Larson in 1978.

Johnson’s time of 25.31 topped the old record of 25.37, set by Dara Torres in 1983. Johnson also won the 100-meter butterfly.