Runge golden once again for Team USA
July 27, 2017 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Wisconsin freestyler puts Americans in position to claim relay title at World Championships
• Results
MADISON, Wis. — Cierra Runge was good as gold once again.
The Wisconsin freestyler put her United States teammates in position to claim another gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle relay Thursday at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest.
Runge swam the second leg of the Americans' entry in the morning preliminary session, clocking a split of 1 minute, 59.17 seconds that help put Team USA into the final with a third-place finish in an overall time of 7:53.73.
The quartet of Leah Smith, Mallory Comerford, Melanie Margalis and Katie Ledecky brought things home in the final with a swim of 7:43.39 that was enough to win the gold by more than 1.5 seconds over runner-up China (7:44.96). Australia took the bronze in 7:48.51.
With the victory, the U.S. has claimed seven of the last eight world championships titles in the 800 free relay.
Impressively, Runge has been part of Team USA's title-winning efforts in each of the last three years. She also won gold medals in the 800 free relay at the 2015 World Championships and last summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Runge was an All-American in her first season at Wisconsin in 2016-17 by placing seventh as part of the Badgers' entry in the 400-yard freestyle relay, an event in which she also helped the Badgers claim a Big Ten title while breaking the conference record with a time of 3:12.91.
In all, Runge set six school records in her first year as a Badger.
She went on to take fourth in the 800-meter free, fifth in the 400 free and sixth in the 200 free at the 2017 USA Swimming National Championships in June.
Players Mentioned
