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Former N.C. State star helps set world record at Olympics

Aug 10, 2008

BEIJING, CHINA — The United States has set a world record in the men's Olympic 400-meter freestyle relay preliminaries.

The team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers won their heat Sunday evening in 3 minutes, 12.23
seconds, erasing the old mark of 3:12.46 set by the U.S. at the 2006 Pan Pacific championships in Victoria, British Columbia.

The U.S. has not won the event at the Olympics since 1996, taking silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004.

Another former Wolfpack swimmer, Dan Velez, won the third heat and set a new Puerto Rican record during the 100m-breaststroke prelims on Saturday.

Jones was part of the U.S. team that owned the previous record for the 400-meter freestyle relay, becoming the first black swimmer to set a long-course world mark. He is also just the third black swimmer in the history of the U.S. Olympic squad. 

When he competed for N.C. State, Jones earned honors as the NCAA champion swimmer in 2006.