Nicolas Albiero Drops 45.5 100 Back, Moves to #6 Ranking in NCAA

 CINCINNATI V. LOUISVILLE

• January 30, 2021
• Louisville, KY
• Short course yards (SCY)
• Results
• Score
  • Louisville 185, Cincinnati 75
• Notable absences
  • Cincinnati: Conner Funke
  • Louisville: Daniel Sos (has not yet raced this year), Bartosz Piszczorowicz (has not yet raced this year)

Nicolas Albiero dropped a 45.54 in the 100 back yesterday as Louisville cruised past the visiting Cincinnati Bearcats.

Albiero’s swim comes about eight-tenths off of his lifetime best, a 44.75 from the 2020 ACC Championships. With that swim, which is only his second SCY 100 back since those ACCs, he launches to #6 in this season’s NCAA rankings. His old season best was a 46.54 from the Louisville Invitational in November.

Albiero also popped a 42.96 to win the 100 free, jumping to #21 nationally and coming just six-tenths off of his best.

The Cardinals were off to a blazing start in the 200 medley relay, posting a 1:24.21 but getting called for a DQ; a legal swim at that time would’ve been good for T-4th in the nation this season. Evgenii Somov was the only other double-winner for Louisville, sweeping the 100 breast (53.32) and 200 breast (1:58.73).

Haridi Sameh, who was 19.01 on the end of the DQ’d 200 medley relay, took the 50 free in 19.51, a season best. Sameh moves to T-14th nationally with that swim. Sameh was also 47.89 in the 100 fly, touching third behind teammates Nikos Sofianidis (47.70) and Mitchell Whyte (47.87). In the 200 fly, Greyson Alarcon took the win at 1:46.54.

In the 1000 free, Ilia Sibirtsev clocked a 9:02.83 to get the win by over ten seconds, and Hayden Curley followed with a 200 free victory (1:37.62) in a tight win over Cincinnati’s Calvin Coetzee (1:37.94).

Cincinnati had several upset swims, including Blake Hanna breaking through for a 200 back victory (1:44.14) and Spencer Sehlhorst hitting the wall first in the 400 IM (3:53.20). Dom Polling had a pair of solid runner-up showings in the breaststrokes, going 54.10 and then nearly beating Somov in the 200, going 1:58.88.

Colton Paulson was the other individual winner for the Cardinals, going 4:24.83 in the 500 free to edge out Sibirtsev (4:25.39) and teammate Tyler Klawiter (4:25.63), and Louisville closed out strong with a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 free relay. Their A went 1:17.39, led off by Sameh (19.61) with Albiero (19.38), Mihalis Deliyiannis (19.35) and Tanner Cummings (19.05) to round it out.

On the B relay, Caleb Duncan (19.61), Paulson (19.57) and Dalton Lowe (19.68) all snuck under 20 seconds with flying starts, as did Whyte on the end of the C relay (19.96). Deliyiannis was also 19.19 on the end of the C medley relay