Arizona Takes Three Titles; Texas Bites into Cal’s Lead on Day 2 at NCAA’s

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The NCAA Championships are made for champions, and the champions shone hugely on day 2 in Federal Way, Washington at the 2012 Men’s edition. The biggest champion of this meet is Tom Shields, who has probably already sealed up swimmer-of-the-meet honors. But we also saw other great champions – three in total from Arizona, who rebounded from a dreadful first day; and 1 big one from Texas’ Dax Hill in the 200 free to keep themselves in this meet. In fact, every Championship on this day was won by one of the teams that are in the top four of the standings – Arizona with 3, Cal with 2, Texas with 2, and Stanford with 1.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

The Arizona men used phenomenal relay exchanges to set a new American Record in this 200 medley relay, with the quartet of Mitchell Friedemann, Kevin Cordes, Giles Smith, and Adam Small touching in 1:23.53. This relay swam with two new pieces from their prelims group, with Cordes and Small jumping on board, and those two were the difference-makers. Cordes split a 23.25 (fastest in the field) and Small had a monster anchor of 18.78 to hold of Cal super-frosh Tyler Messerschmidt. Arizona showed this morning that they swim much better with positive momentum, and this was the best way they could have started this meet.

Cal was 2nd in 1:23.91, with an amazing fastest-in-history butterfly split from Tom Shields of 19.80.

Auburn was 3rd in 1:24.70 (Kyle Owens had the best 50 back split in 21.24). Texas in 4th (1:24.73) and Stanford in 5th (1:25.14) have both struggles to hold their speed in finals relays at this meet. Stanford struggled on the first three legs, though an 18.53 anchor from Aaron Wayne was a silver lining.

Ohio State ran away from the field in the B-Final with another great anchor from Jason Schnur (18.6) as the group swam a 1:25.80. USC was 9th in 1:26.33, and will be happy to get through the medleys that are not their best events.

Arizona's Adam Small motions to the fans after holding off Cal to win the 200 medley relay (Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Men’s 400 IM

Arizona’s Austen Thompson swam a best time, and became the 8th-fastest swimmer in history, by winning this 400 IM in 3:39.15. The winning leg for him was the breaststroke – he very nearly broke a minute on that 100 with a 1:00.08 – that’s faster than anybody near the top of the all-time rankings has ever split in the 400 IM. Unlike the women, the best men’s IM’ers are not generally the breaststrokers. That is a stroke that Thompson has been focusing a lot on this year, and it was the key to his win as it gave him a big enough cushion to hold off Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker. Experience paid off in this race – Thompsen was the only senior in the A-Final.

Whitaker made up a full two seconds on his closing 100, but was so far behind that got him no closer than a 4:41.37. Wisconsin’s Michael Weiss did very well to hold with Whitaker through 300 yards, and finished 3rd in 3:43.12, which is a lifetime best. That was the only deviation from seed in this final (he jumped Indiana’s Sam Trahin, who was 4th in 3:44.37).

Cal freshman Adam Hinshaw took 5th in 3:44.74. Texas’ Nick D’Innocenzo was 8th.

The B-Final was an awesome race. Going into the closing 100, a bunch of distance freestylers were gunning it out for the final touch, but it was Florida’s Dan Wallace who touched first in 3:44.36. That’s a huge boost for the Gators, who really needed one at this point of the meet. He held off Texas’ Austin Surhoff (3:44.39). Surhoff again went out very hard in this race, again faded on the breaststroke, but unlike the morning prelim, he had enough on the freestyle to move way up from his 16th in prelims.

Austen Thompson makes it a second-straight win for the Wildcats in the 400 IM. (©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Men’s 100 Fly

On swim number two (out of four) on the night, Tom Shields again looked very casual in this 100 fly. He cruised to a win in 44.76, which improved his standing as the 5th-fastest in history. But the key wasn’t the win – it was expected (he was a full second ahead of the field). The key was that by taking only roughly 15 strokes the entire 100, he masterfully used huge underwaters to save a ton of energy. It would be silly to say that he wasn’t tired after this race, but it was clear in his post-race interview (especially as compared to how exhausted Thompson was after the 400 IM) that he still had plenty of energy to go.

The runner-up was Arizona’s Giles Smith in 45.77, and Florida’s Marcin Cieslak was 3rd in 54.86.

Dan Madwed took 4th for Michigan in 45.91, and Texas’ Jimmy Feigen picked up crucial points, in what was mostly a bonus event for him, with 5th in 46.29.

Cal, despite Shields’ win, gave up some ground here with Mathias Gydesen touching 7th in 46.36. With that swim, it’s clear that this is no runaway – Texas is going to keep it tight.

Michigan’s Sean Fletcher won the B-Final in 45.98 to make a 5th swimmer under 46 seconds, which matches last year’s total. In the battle for top-10 spots, Georgia’s Michael Arnold had a crucial 10th-place finish in 46.33, while Texas A&M’s Boris Loncaric slipped to 14th.

Men’s 200 Free

Dax Hill did it again. We’ve now got his strategy figured out. Ignore every 200 free this guy swims until the last one in the last round of the last meet of the season. Then, he’s going to back way off on the front-half, ride the hip of whoever is next to him, and blow through some big turns (with his huge 6’8 frame) for the win. He tried it last year, and this year, it worked perfectly en route to an NCAA title – his first.

He was 1.3 seconds behind USC’s Dimitri Colupaev at the halfway mark, but to a swimmer as big and long as Hill, that took about 5 dolphin kicks and two strokes to make up when he decided to turn on his jets. Hill split 45.7-46.8, which is as close to a negative-split as you’ll get in this event.

3rd-place went to Louisville’s Joao de Lucca in 1:33.49. Notre Dame’s Frank Dyer, only a sophomore, became the first swimmer in the history of Notre Dame Swimming to finish in the top 16 with a 4th-place finish in 1:34.00, which is almost unbelievable given the way that the midwest teams (Ohio State, Michigan) dominated this sport in the 60’s and 70’s.

Texas’ Clay Youngquist made another huge statement for the Longhorns and their intention to be a part of this battle with a 5th-place finish in 1:34.06. After this 200 free, where Cal had no scorers but Texas had 3, it was settled that the team battle would be within a few points going into the meet’s final day.

And looking down to the B-Final, the top two finishers were a pair of highly impressive freshman that have monumental futures in the sport. The winner was USC’s Cristian Quintero in 1:34.27, on a come-from-behind final 25 yards. That’s after only a semester in American where he’s had to adapt to a new coach, new training, a new language, and a brand new course (international swimmers often say they struggle with yards swimming as freshmen). In 2nd behind him was Will Hamilton of Cal. He’s not breaking records yet like some of his Cal teammates, but every race all Hamilton does is move up in the standings. If Messerschmidt and Stubblefield are going to be the flash of this Cal class in future years, Hamilton has “rock” written all over him.

Men’s 100 Breast

Freshman Kevin Cordes broke the American Record in this 100 breaststroke in prelims, but it was clear from the very beginning of this final that it wasn’t going to be the same story in finals. This final was an absolute race, and it took every inch of Cordes’ 6’5 frame to get to the wall first on 51.71. He took one stroke to the last two of Louisville’s Carlos Almeida, and that one stroke was worth .07. Almeida was 2nd in 51.78, which is the second-straight top-3 finish for the Cardinals to move them way up into the meet’s top 10.

Cal took advantage of their 3-1 finalists edge in this race, with Martin Liivamagi taking 3rd in 51.93, Nolan Koon 5th in 52.42, and Trevor Hoyt 6th in 52.55. Those times were better than prelims, but for one of the few times in this meet Cal actually gave up some big ground compared to expectations. That’s because Koon was last year’s runner-up, and would have been counted to finish at least in the top three this year (he was a second faster in 2011).

Meanwhile, Texas’ Eric Friedland slid to 8th in this final, after placing 5th in the prelim.

Kevin Cordes, only a freshman, made it a third win in 4 events for the Arizona Wildcats. (Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Men’s 100 Back

Cal’s Tom Shields took his second individual win of the day, and rocketed more great underwaters to roar home on the last 25 and take this 100 backstroke title in 44.86. Nearly the entire margin between him and runner-up David Nolan of Stanford (45.53) was made up in the final 25-yards. That’s the best swim we’ve seen yet in this meet from Nolan, and ranks him 4th on the all-time list in the great Stanford backstroke tradition (they have more 100 back titles than any other team with 11.

Shields didn’t break any National Records in his four-swim second day at these NCAA Championships, though he surely could have if he had cut back his event schedule. This 100 back was a Cal Record, the 5th-best time in history, and only two-tenths from Ryan Lochte’s all-time mark.

But Shields did become the third swimmer in history to pull the 100 fly/100 back double on the same day (Arizona’s Albert Subirats did it in 2007, Stanford’s Jay Mortensen did it in 1988). But he’s the first swimmer in history to go under 45 in both the 100 yard fly and the 100 back in their careers (Subirats also did it on the same day – also with a 200 medley beforehand, though that was DQ’ed). That incredible repeat-performance is what will really leave an impression on swimming historians decades from now.

This race was not what Texas wanted to see, as besides Shields winning, Cole Cragin finished 3rd in 45.89. Kip Darmody took 7th in 46.41, which are bonus points for making the final, but was slower than his prelims swim.

Auburn’s Kyle Owens was 4th in 45.98, and Cal’s Marcin Tarczynski was 5th in 46.02. Cal also took the B-Final win from Mathias Gydesen in 46.52 to extend the Bears’ lead to 65 points. Texas knew they’d get some back in the next event, the 3-meter, but how much was a huge question.

Cal's Tom Shields celebrates his 2nd win of the day after taking the 100 back title, making him the third swimmer to complete the 100 fly - 100 back double. (Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Men’s 3-Meter

Stanford freshman Kristian Ipsen lived up bigtime to his potential and nailed this 3-meter with a winning score of 466.05, which is in the same neighborhood of what won the event for the great David Boudia last year. Texas got huge points thanks to Drew Livingston’s runner-up finish (after a win earlier in the meet) of 454.25. He finished the event with an awesome final dive of over 90 points (a huge barrier) to make it a closer competition than it looked like it might be after 5 rounds, as Ipsen stumbled on his 5th dive. Ipsen won’t dive platform on Saturday, leaving a big door open for Livingston.

Ohio State’s Shane Mizkiel took 7th, and conversely Texas A&M’s Grant Nel was 16th, last in the consolation round. That could be very significant in the top 10 battle.

Texas picked up another big 6 points in the Consolation earlier in the meet from Matt Cooper’s 11th-place finish, and Arizona’s Ben Grado won his second consolation round.

Kristian Ipsen Twists during the 3-meter final at the 2012 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships. (Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)

Men’s 800 Free Relay

The four-swim session finally caught up with Cal’s Tom Shields in this 800 free relay (though, based on the results we saw, it was absolutely the right decision scoring-wise). He led of Cal’s relay in 1:33.72 – by no means a bad time, but not the 1:32 (or even 1:31) he’s capable of. Fortunately for him, his counterpart, Texas’ Dax Hill, was also a bit slower than he was capable of and split a 1:33.80.

Cal front-loaded this relay. Texas put their star on the first leg, but then followed with two freshman and left their gutsy senior Neil Caskey to anchor. He matched up against Cal’s Ben Hinshaw, and whereas Hinshaw was swimming a very up-and-down, power stroke, Caskey stayed very flat, very smooth, and on a final smooth stroke snuck just past Cal for the win.

Texas’ mark was 6:15.55, and Cal was 2nd in 6:15.70. Texas needed this win badly, but Cal moving up to 2nd was a huge coups for the Bears too. They were 5 seconds faster than the Cal squad of 2011, even with Shields adding a lot of time.

Stanford was well back in 3rd in 6:19.19, and Virginia (after getting in an early hole) was 4th in 6:20.97.

Michigan was the top seed coming into this race, but disappointingly added 5 seconds to finish 5th in 6:21.55. Arizona, swimming out of the B-Final, dropped big time to score 6th. Nobody in this relay split better than a 1:33.

The USC 800 free relay was a huge hurt in their battle for a top 5 finish after being DQ’ed. They would have been 6th, for a huge 26 points, but anchor Dimitri Colupaev exited from lane 1 on the side of the pool (they raced in lane 2), and an official disqualified them, despite it being the last race of the session.

Full Live Results available here.

Team scores through 100 fly:

Cal continued to hold the lead after day 2, but Texas made up big ground in the standings. Stanford and Arizona are alone in the battle for 3rd, as are Michigan and Auburn for 5th.

Louisville is holding on to 9th, despite big-time diving points from the Indiana Hoosiers.

Full comparative scoring will come shortly.

1. Cal Berkeley 379.5
2. Texas 343.5
3. Arizona 283
4. Stanford 277
5. Michigan 199
6. Auburn 178.5
7. Florida 125
8. USC 119
9. Louisville 110
10. Indiana 102
11. Ohio St 92
12. Texas A&M 69
13. Georgia 62.5
14. Penn St 56
15. Virginia 50
16. UNC 48.5