Florida sophomore Maxime Rooney has entered the 200 IM rather than the 500 free on day 2 of NCAAs, per the pre-cut psych sheets out today.
Rooney was an All-American in the 200 free last year, but missed scoring in both the 500 free and 100 free. Rooney is an exceedingly versatile swimmer, but hasn’t yet gotten a third event into NCAA scoring range.
His 200 free (11th seed) should be in line to score, and his 100 free is close. Rooney would have scored in the 100 free last year if he’d matched his season-best in prelims. He sits 22nd in that event right now.
He swam the 200 fly as his third event at SECs, going 1:43.11, but that time would leave him hard-pressed to score at NCAAs and would be a very tough double with the 100 free. Rooney swam the 500 free at NCAAs last year, but added six seconds to his 4:18 seed to finish 48th. He’s only swum the 200 IM twice this year, going 1:45.84 (prelims) and 1:45.25 (finals) at the Purdue Invite, and prior to that, his career-best was 1:47.53.
Florida will hope for a big drop from Rooney, and fans might be intrigued to see his progress, especially after the last time Florida took a multi-talented blue chip recruit and tried him out in a 200 IM on a whim.
Florida is currently sitting 5th in psych sheet scoring, but should be able to push up to at least 3rd in scoring.
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