This writeup was originally written live, as the meet unfolded. For the highlights, just read the sections underneath the event names. Items in italics are more details, and include recaps of B-finals.
It’s time to get set up for the final night of the men’s NCAA Championships from Minneapolis. Cal enters the night with a 63.5 point lead over Texas. The Longhorns have many more top-8 finishers coming tonight–10, including divers and milers, compared to just 6 for Cal, but Cal makes up for that in part with 4 B-finalists (to Texas’ 1), and the top-seeded 400 free relay. It’s not totally out of reach, but it would take a big collapse for Texas to win.
When Stanford’s 400 free relay didn’t make the A-final, they probably knocked themselves out of contention for 2nd, and should be comfortably in 3rd at the meet’s end. This will extend their streak of top-4 finishes at NCAA’s to 21 years straight. There’s not much suspense at the top, but there’s still a great battle going on for 4th (Arizona is ahead of Florida by 1 point) and 7th place (USC is ahead of Virginia by 1 point), with Auburn firmly entrenched at 6th.
Prelims were a bit of a nail-biter, with the favorites in 3 out of the 4 individual events barely sneaking in to the A-final. But Texas and Cal swimmers will all be looking to perform much better in finals.
In prelims of platform diving, Purdue’s David Boudia had the highest score, by far, without any big mistakes, and will be in the A-final, along with two of his teammates. Texas’ hopes were partially riding on this platform competition. Drew Livingston made the A-final easily, but his teammate Will Chandler, who placed second at Zones in this event, didn’t earn a second chance tonight, which was a big hit to the Longhorns’ chances.
The 200 fly is the race I’m most looking forward to tonight. It will feature Tom Shields, the newly minted NCAA Record holder from Pac-10’s, and 3 of the best collegiate 200 butterfliers ever in Dan Madwed, Mark Dylla, and Bobby Bollier. We’re also still on record watch for Nathan Adrian in the 100 free, though he was nowhere near that level in prelims.
6:52 PM- The first event on the final day of competition is the men’s 1650 freestyle. So far in the slow heats, which were swum earlier in the day, the top time is UNC’s Jo Kinderwater in 14:42.64, with Auburn breakout freshman Zane Grothe 2nd in 14:47.09. For comparison, those times would’ve been 1st and 3rd at NCAA’s last year. This year, they probably will be top-8, but will be unlikely to hold up in those same positions.
6:56 PM- In the final heat, the battle will be between Stanford’s Chad La Tourette, Georgia’s Martin Grodzki, with Texas’ Jackson Wilcox (who had a great 500) possibly getting in on the fun. La Tourette and Grodzki are by far the top two seeds in this race.
6:58 PM- Early on in our poll question, our readers thought that Stanford was headed for 2nd, by a wide margin. As the day has worn on however, Texas has picked up steam and now sits on top as the favorite for 2nd. Surprised at how many people think that Cal will be 2nd, rather than win. Lots of Texas fans voting, I assume.
6:59 PM- Ohio State’s Justin Farra wins the Elite 88 Award for having the highest GPA at the NCAA Championship meet. That’s a huge honor, and a deserving recipient.
7:01 PM- Men’s milers are in the water. Remember that the camera angle is reversed from prelims. Lane 1 is at the top of the screen, and lane 8 is at the bottom. Don’t sleep on Matt McLean either, who had an oustanding swim to win the 500. He hates this event, but he’s still very good at it.
7:03 PM- The lead pack after about 300 yards is McBroom from Texas, La Tourette, Grodzki, and McLean. Not unexpected. Jackson Wilcox should get back into this race at some point. Long battle.
7:05 PM- Well ahead of Kinderwater’s pace from earlier. There could be 5 guys in 14:30’s in this heat.
7:07 PM- Grodzki makes the first big move of the race. La Tourette matches him, but McLean and McBroom fall off the pace a little.
7:09 PM- La Tourette looks like he’s ready to make his move now.
1650 freestyle
This was an absolutely epic 1650 race. Very early in the race, a lead pack of Chad La Tourette, Martin Grodzki, Matt McLean, and Michael McBroom emerged in lanes 2-5. Grodzki made the first move, but when nobody fell away, he backed off. Next came La Tourette, again to no avail. On the 3rd move, McBroom (who called this University Aquatics Center his home pool last year) was able to knock Virginia’s Matt McLean off of the scent, but nobody else. But he kept grinding away at the guys in the two in the middle lanes, and with about 100 yards to go, when he didn’t tighten up, he had this race in the bag. His finishing touch 14:32.86 was 10 seconds faster than the winning time from last season, and by far the best time of his career. It also jumps him past La Tourette for 9th on the all-time list. This also makes him the first ever Longhorn National Champion in this event.
Texas picks up a big 31 points thanks to an 8th-place finish from Jackson Wilcox. McBroom’s win was a huge surprise, but the point total was not unexpected. La Tourette and Grodzki also turned in great swims to tie for 2nd in 14:34.80, staring each other in the eye the whole way. Auburn’s gotta be excited about a 6th-place finish from freshman Zane Grothe, as distance hasn’t always been their specialty.
7:21 PM- If you had told me that a Longhorn would win the mile, McBroom would not have been my pick. Awesome performance by him. But as we mentioned, he is very familiar with this pool, and probably had a few locals pulling for him as well.
7:23 PM- 200 backstroke up next. This should be a great race. Chitwood will look to bounceback from a poor 100 yesterday (though a very good 200 IM on day 1), and Eric Ress will try and build on his momentum to hold him off. Texas has two swimmers up in the A-final.
7:24 PM- B-final is in the water. With two Cal Bears in this heat, it’s very significant for team scoring.
7:26 PM- Kyle Owens wins B-final, Cal doesn’t help themselves out by going 7-8 for only 3 points. Murphy couldn’t take advantage though and finished 6th. With Texas having two in the A-final, though, this meet is going to tighten up in a hurry right here.
7:29 PM- Texas needs about a 2-3 finish to tie this meet up. Cragin will get out early with nothing to lose after winning a swim-off to get into the A-final.
200 yard backstroke
Indiana’s Eric Ress and Arizona’s Cory Chitwood were locked into a great head-to-head battle throughout this race. It came down to the final touch, and with Ress having a broken hand, you can’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, he hesitated coming into the finish. This is a great way to send Arizona coach Frank Busch off in his last NCAA Championship meet before he takes over as the USA Swimming National Team Director at the end of the season. Chitwood touched in 1:38.84, and Ress in 1:38.96, to make them the 6th and 7th swimmers ever under 1:39.
Florida’s Marco Loughran had a very important swim of 1:40.95 for 3rd place. This will help the Gators keep right with Arizona for 4th place overall. Stanford’s Matthew Swanston and Matt Thompson went 5th and 6th in 1:42.00 and 1:42.12. Texas was unable to take advantage of a huge opportunity to make up ground on Cal with a 6th-place finish from Austin Surhoff and an 8th place finish from Cole Cragin. It did, however, cut the lead down to single digits with five events to go.
7:39 PM- Remember that Auburn’s Adam Brown made the 50 free quite a battle on day 1 with Nathan Adrian. Adrian is still the favorite (despite barely making the A-final) but it wouldn’t be as shocking at this point if Brown won.
7:41 PM- Couple of big names in the B-final of that 100 free. Jakob Allen from Stanford won in a very nice 42.32, followed by Virginia’s Scot Robison, who closes out his individual NCAA career with a 10th place finish.
7:42 PM- The boys lined this 100 free up nicely for us: team scores will watch lanes 5 and 6 (Texas) and lanes 7 and 8 (Cal).
100 free
Did Nathan Adrian look like there was ever a doubt in his mind that he would win this 100 free? He successfully defended his 100 free National Title in 41.10, despite being in an outside lane and barely making the A-final. This just missed Adrian’s career-best time of 41.08 from 2009, but is the fastest time ever swum in textile. Even more important, this was huge for team scoring. Adrian held of Jimmy Feigen, who was 2nd in 41.66 (also not a personal-best) to pick up those big bonus points for the win. He is mister silver in this race, and has been the runner-up all 3 years of his collegiate career. Auburn’s Adam Brown, who was the top seed after prelims, couldn’t match his morning swim and posted a 41.84 for 3rd. The freshman sensation Vlad Morozov was 4th in 41.88, followed by a big finish from Texas’ Dax Hill in 42.06.
Cal’s Graeme Moore, who like Adrian is a senior and leader of this Cal team, finished 7th in 42.39. Cal outscored Texas by 1 point in this race to push their lead to 9.5 points.
7:51 PM- That had to be the safest lane-8 pick of all-time Adrian smoked that race.
7:53 PM- Cal has two in this B-final. Gotta be in the top 3 to hold of Texas, who’s loaded with 3 in the A-final (though Cal also has two there).
7:55 PM- That’s a huge win by Cal’s Trevor Hoyt, for Cal. Thanks to that, Cal shouldn’t lose any ground on Texas, and may even make up a little more distance.
200 breaststroke
Another National Championship for Texas on this final day of competition, and again not the guy who you would’ve expected coming into this meet. In fact, it probably wasn’t even the 2nd guy you would’ve picked. But Eric Friedland put up his best time by over a second to take the win in this race. D’Innocenzo was right there the whole time, but Cal’s Martti Aljand snuck in and held off the Longhorn to take 2nd in 1:52.88, with D’Innocenzo 3rd in 1:53.13.
Texas’ Scott Spann, who was the Longhorn expected to win this race, finished 6th, and though that’s disappointing for him, it’s huge for the Longhorns as a team. That’s because his swim, combined with Cal’s Damir Dugonjic sliding to 8th, puts the Longhorns in the lead by .5 points! Still nothing for the Golden Bears to be concerned about. Cal should win the 400 free relay, and so it comes down to Cal’s two A-finalists in the 200 fly (including NCAA Record holder Tom Shields) outscoring Texas’ one A-finalist Drew Livingston. I like those odds for Cal.
8:07 PM- B-final won’t affect team scoring at the top. In the A-final, watch lanes 2 and 7 from Cal. If they can combine for about 30 points (which is a win from NCAA Record Holder Shields and anything from Robbie Sullivan), then they’ will win the meet without trouble.
8:11 PM- Tom Luchsinger of UNC is having an awesome meet, and he picked up a big B-final win for the Tarheels in that 11th-15th battle. Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or placed 10th, which could seal the 4th-place finish for Arizona.
200 butterfly
In this last individual event of the 2011 National Championship meet, and the last individual swim of his collegiate career, Mark Dylla let out a natatorium-shattering howl. And then another one. And then another one. That’s the howl of 4-years of frustration with this 200 butterfly being released. In 2008 and 2009, he was 2nd in this event. In 2010, he touched the wall first, but was disqualified for a one-handed touch. This year, after Cal’s Tom Shields set the NCAA Record at Pac-10’s, the buzz was all about Dylla being left out once again. But he took out all of his frustrations on the final 25 of this race, where he busted out and blew away the field, including Shields, to win in 1:40.60, which is a meet record and the second-fastest time in NCAA history.
Bobby Bollier of Stanford also had a great closing 50, and he also eclipsed Shields in this race for 2nd. His time of 1:40.76, which is the 6th-best swim ever. Shields was 3rd in 1:41.20. Shields’ teammate Robbie Sullivan placed 8th, which is huge since Texas had no scorers in this race.
How exciting will this event be next season? Aside from the champion Dylla, the next 11 placers all return next season to vie again for the title. This is a golden era of the 200 butterfly in college swimming.
Cal regained the lead and put 26.5 points between them and the Longhorns. Barring a Drew Livingston win over all-world diver David Boudia, this meet is locked up for Cal. Needless to say, you’ll hear a ton of cheering for Boudia to win this, despite a relatively small Purdue cheering section.
8:29 PM- Texas A&M’s Grant Nel puts up a big standard of 79 on his first dive, despite going off of the 5m platform. That’s a good “rabbit” for the top divers to chase in round 1.
8:31 PM- Livingston has been pressing all weekend, and is in last after round 1. He is 50 points behind the leader Nick McCrory of Duke, who puts up a monster score of 101! I believe that’s the first dive we’ve seen above 100 points all weekend.
8:45 PM- for Texas’ absolute best case in the 400 free relay (they win, Cal falls to 5th), Livingston needs to be 3rd to give the Longhorns a chance.
8:47 PM- Boudia blinks first with a poor dive in round 3. But we saw the same thing in the other two boards, so he can still come back. But Duke’s McCrory is lighting this up. Now a 57-point lead with 3 dives to go. It’s his to lose.
3 meter diving
Duke’s Nick McCrory dove “conservatively,” due to a shoulder injury, but still put up an impressive performance (including the only two dives on the weekend in any discipline over 100 points). He broke his own NCAA Record, set last year, with a monster score of 548.90. McCrory is a force to be reckoned with for Team USA in London next season. This is his second-straight NCAA Championship in this event, and the second-straight year that he has upset David Boudia’s chance to become the first diver in 20 years to win all 3 diving events. So much for diving conservatively and saving his shoulder.
Boudia, who’s only a junior but is turning pro after this year, finished off a magnificent career with a 2nd-place performance in 479.10. He will finish with 6 individual national titles (Livingston upset him in 2008 on the 1-meter). Texas A&M’s Grant Nel was 3rd with 452.35. Those two finished in the top 3 in all three diving events this year, which is an absolutely incredible display of versatility. 2008 was the last time even one diver pulled it off, and to have two do it in the same year is unbelievable.
In team scoring, Texas’ Drew Livingston again was pressing in this event. He showed flashes of his potential with a few very great dives, but overall missed one-too-many times to score in the top 3. He did take 5th, however, which keeps Texas alive. The Longhorns are now down 12.5 points to Cal. That means that for Texas to win, Cal can place no higher than 6th in the final relay. Regardless of what Cal does (sans DQ), Texas must win this relay to win the meet.
9:24 PM- I think there’s no way, with a 41-low leadoff from Adrian, that Cal doesn’t punctuate this meet with a win in the 400 free relay. Texas does have the best 1-2 probably with Jimmy Feigen and Dax Hill, but they’re missing the depth here that they usually have. Auburn is loaded, and there’s a chance that they pull the upset, but a small one, and they’re the only ones who I think can.
9:27 PM- Disappointing for Stanford that they’re not competing for the A-final championship, but they bounce back to win nicely in the B-final in 2:49.54.
400 yard freestyle relay
This was a beautiful end to a beautiful meet by the Cal Golden Bears. They usually lead Nathan Adrian off so that he can shoot for records, but in this race, they let him anchor. How fitting is it that Adrian, the senior, anchored Cal to a win in his final race and the meet’s, the 400 free relay, with a stage all to his own thanks to a sizable margin of victory. He did not disappoint with a 40.71 split to carry the Bears to a win in 2:47.39. This gave them a two-second margin of victory over Auburn (2:49.47).
USC was 3rd in 2:50.32. Texas, despite a great effort from their first two legs Dax Hill (42.63) and Jimmy Feigen (41.60) finished 4th in 2:50.47.
Overall Scoring
We know what happened at the top of the pile. Cal took the final relay to make the margin over 20, but huge credit has to go to the Texas Longhorns. They brought a very young team to Minneapolis, and fought harder than anyone, but in the end earned only a 2nd-place finish. The Stanford men stood relatively isolated in 3rd place.
A sick Conor Dwyer ended up derailing Cal by just a few points, but they couldn’t catch Arizona on the final day. The Wildcats finished about as well as they could’ve hoped for with such a young team, and sent coach Frank Busch off to wider, National Team pastures with a 4th-place finish.
We’ll recap full scores in our complete meet recap tomorrow, in addition to giving out a ton of awards and honorable mentions. Unlike the women’s meet, the awards this year are pretty wide open, so I’ll have to do some thinking tonight. If you want to sway my opinion, feel free to post as such below.
1. California 493
2. Texas 470.5
3. Stanford 403
4. Arizona 302
5. Florida 291
6. Auburn 269.5
7. Southern Cali 206
8. Virginia 200
9. Michigan 181
10. Georgia 125.5
Tease,,, its been 4 days.What is the news?
Stay tuned…I’m about to drop some news on you that could seriously shake up this argument…
Yes Clay and Kip are just 2 guys, but how many people are you suggesting that Texas can add to their NCAA team? They return 13 swimmers and 2 divers, and all of their graduating relay swims are easily replaceable. Friedland is a NCAA champion and Clay, 1:34.2, and Kip, 1:35.5, could already swim on the 8 FR. Surhoff split 19.2 in prelims of 2 FR and Texas had several other swimmers (Moore, Wenzler, K Hill) swim 19.lows with relay starts this year. This looks like a team that could put up 550+ points if they swim like they did yesterday.
Braden,
You are right, Nolan is the tip of the iceberg. Have some fun with this. Take the kids in next years Stanford freshman class ( Nolan ,Cosgarea, Edwards, Hommel, Stephens, Lane, to name a few) and check out their rankings on the USA swimming database for graduating seniors. Stanford has multiple #1 rankings with Nolan and Cosgarea and then multiple swimmers in the top five across almost all events. In the 200 IM alone, Nolan, Cosgarea and Edwards are #1,#2, #3.
Yes, Darmody and Younquist are terrific but they are just two swimmers. Yes, Texas will have more seasoned athletes next year, but Stanford is an incredibly talented group and will a force to be reckoned with.
Texas’ returning team for next year is disgustingly good.
Team: Returning Individual Points (Relay Spots Need to be Replaced)
Texas: 313.5 (4)
Arizona: 165 (0)
Stanford: 157 (12)
CAL: 156 (14)
I’m sure Florida wouldn’t be too far off here but I didn’t bother doing the math because the loss of Dwyer and Fraser hurts them so much (especially in relays).
Texas adds Clay Youngquist and Kip Darmody to a team this good that will training all year like they just lost a national championship by 23.5 points. They could win next year by triple digits.
Swimmer of the Meet: Staab
Diver of the Meet: Boudia
Coach of the Meet: Durden
Newcomer: Morozov… Read more »
Was actually just debating this with David Rieder, and we came to the same conclusion, that Texas should be the favorite. The only thing that could upset them is that Stanford’s freshman class coming in is so unbelievably good (Nolan is just the beginning) that they will reload in an absolute heartbeat. I think they keep it under 100, but agree that Texas wins.
Will probably do a full writeup of this in the next couple of days. Thanks for crunching the numbers for me!
I guess your “Cal wins the team title, and it won’t be close” prediction was half correct. It was close all right. Closer than Texas’ win last year.
What is wrong with Auburn? They went from dominance in both men’s and women’s for many years and the last couple of years have looked embarrassing. 6th in the men’s last year and again this year and 8th both years for the women?
And no attention to detail. As you pointed out, both the men’s and women’s team — already insignificant in the 800 free relay finishing 12th or 13th out of 16 in both cases… and they leave early???
And last year’s men’s 400 free relay lost out on a likely 2nd or 3rd place finish because of a false start.
I don’t see any of the other good teams showing so little focus.
To add insult to injury,… Read more »