2017 M. NCAA 200 Breast Preview: Licon Might Be Alone Under 1:50

2017 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 22 – Saturday, March 25
• IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
• Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
• Defending Champion: Texas (results)
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet
• Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
• Live Results

200 BREASTSTROKE

• NCAA record: 1:48.12 Will Licon (Texas) 3-26-2016
• American record: 1:48.12 Will Licon (Texas) 3-26-2016
• U.S. Open record: 1:48.12 Will Licon (Texas) 3-26-2016
• 2016 NCAA Champion: Will Licon (Texas) – 1:48.12

There are several men who have been jostling to lead the Americans internationally in breaststroke– Texas’s Will Licon, however, is the only one among them who will be racing this weekend in Indianapolis. All of the rest have either recently graduated college, or have been swimming Division III. That leaves Licon as the heavy favorite to win his second-straight NCAA title here, as no other swimmer has been remotely close to breaking 1:50, while Licon looks well on his way to drop a 1:47 or better.

This is an event dominated by upperclassmen– seniors hold five of the top six seeds, and the first underclassmen isn’t until you get to #12 Jacob Montague, a freshman from Michigan. Four of the top ten are returners from last year’s A final, not including Licon, who will fight for spots behind him this weekend. Those four are Alabama’s Anton McKee (#2 1:52.22), Virginia Tech’s Brandon Fiala (#3 1:52.39), Mizzou’s Fabian Schwingenschlogl (#5 1:52.61) and Louisville’s Carlos Claverie (#10 1:53.19). All four of them come in seeded faster than they were last season.

South Carolina’s Nils Wich-Glasen may seem like a newcomer– he didn’t even place top 16 at NCAAs last year. When reading between the lines, though, (or just looking at the bottom of the results page), Wich-Glasen was actually DQ’d– his time of 1:53.91 in last year’s prelims would’ve put him in the A final had he not been DQ’d. He’s the #4 seed this season with a 1:52.41, over 1.5 seconds faster than he came in to the meet last year. Considering the recent success of South Carolina’s basketball team, there’s no reason why he wouldn’t be swimming with a chip on his shoulder. Both the Gamecocks basketball team and Wich-Glasen will be looking to make the Elite Eight (or A final) this week.

Steven Stumph, a USC senior, won his third-straight Pac-12 title in the 200 breast three weeks ago, and he comes in as the #6 seed with a 1:52.82. Stumph was 10th in prelims last year, then won the B final. Like most of the top seeds this year, he comes in with a faster seed time than in 2016. Georgia Tech’s Moises Loschi was the ACC runner-up, sandwiched between Fiala and Claverie. His 1:53.08 has him seeded 8th, in between two Big Ten studs. #7 is Purdue’s Marat Amaltdinov (1:52.89) and #9 is Michigan’s Chris Klein (1:53.14). Neither Amaltdinov nor Klein swam any individual races last year, and this could be their chance to make an A final.

TOP 8 PREDICTIONS:

Dark horse: #16 Alex Evdomikov (Cornell). The junior made the B-final last year, and he comes in as one of the slew of 1:53’s this year.