Shaine Casas Clocks 41.68 100 Free at American Short Course Champs Day 2

2021 AMERICAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 4-6, 2021
• Austin, Texas
• Short Course Yards
• Results
• Results on Meet Mobile as “2021 American Short Course Champs”

The annual American Short Course Championships continued today in Austin, Texas, following the traditional schedule of day two of a three-day college championships format. As a reminder this meet isn’t an American Championships recognized by any national body, but rather typically serves as a combination club meet and a college last-chance meet, hosted by the University of Texas. This year, the emphasis is definitely on the last-chance side, with only a handful of non-college athletes participating.

You wouldn’t see it on live results, but if you dug through a time trial session on Meet Mobile, you’d find that only one swimmer time trialed the 100 free this evening, but it was a big swim, as Texas A&M junior Shaine Casas clocked a new lifetime best by over a second with a 41.58. His previous best of 42.75 came from leading off the Aggies’ 400 free relay at the 2020 SEC Championships. Casas didn’t swim the 400 free relay at this year’s SECs, instead swimming the other four. Tonight’s time also makes him the 4th-fastest swimmer in the country this season, although it seems likely he’ll swim the 200 back at NCAAs, as he has the top time this season, and one of the fastest times ever, in that event, with a 1:36.54.

Beyond Casas, University of Texas junior Braden Vines had the biggest swim of the day, at least in terms of postseason impact, with a 3:42.57 in the 400 IM. That’s the 4th-fastest time of his career and moves him to #14 in Division 1 this season. His lifetime best of 3:40.09 came from the 2019 Minnesota Invite, and it would put him contention for the A-final later this month if he was to match that time. Vines hasn’t seen a ton of action for Texas this season, but already punched his NCAA invite with a 1:43.18 in the 200 IM yesterday’s prelims, a time which ties him for 14th in the nation this season.

Vines didn’t swim finals tonight, and instead teammate Colter Carman won the 400 IM with a time of 3:48.57. That’s a season-best for Carman, who like Vines has seen limited action this season, including swimming in a pair of dual meets and the Texas Hall Invite, but not last week’s Big 12 Championships.

Texas freshman Zac Van Zandt shaved 0.01s off of his lifetime best with a 45.83 win in the 100 fly. As of the moment, that keeps him at #23 in the nation this event. While that should be enough to earn a NCAA invite, it may not be enough to earn him a spot on the Longhorns’ NCAA roster, as they’ll likely only take 16 swimmers out of the 20+ they seem to have qualified.

A pair of Texas breaststrokers were also swimming today presumably hoping to shore up NCAA Invites. Charlie Scheinfeld swam a 53.37 in the prelims of the 100 breast, and then time trialed a 52.74. He currently sits 27th in Division I with a 52.35, leaving him vulnerable to other results from the next couple of days. Andrew Couchon hit a lifetime best to win the 100 breast in 52.44 this evening, moving him up from 33rd (52.48) to 31st in the rankings. Generally the cut line for NCAAs fall around the 29th spot.

Longhorn Jason Park time trialed a 46.32 that ties for him 26th in the 100 back this season. Last year, Park went 45.82 in that event and qualified for NCAAs, although he may not have made the final paring of the Longhorns’ roster had NCAAs happened.

Veteran Bryce Bohman was on a handful of non-college swimmers here today, and he won the 100 back with a 47.13. Former UGA standout and 2016 Olympian Gunnar Bentz also made an appearance today, clocking a 47.12 in the 100 fly, his 2nd-fastest time ever.

Continuing a theme from yesterday, the Incarnate Word men continued to put up times that would have won events at the CCSA Championships, in which they were the defending champions, but had to miss due to the inclement weather that hit Texas last month. Tonight, Jared Wallace‘s 47.54 was faster than the 47.98 that won the 100 fly last month. They also swam a 1:29.12 in the 200 medley relay, which would have put them 2nd behind Gardner-Webb’s 1:27.32 at CCSAs.

Other results:

• For the second day in a row, Texas’ Ava Longi was the only woman competing in her event, and today she knocked over two seconds off of her lifetime best in the 100 fly, ultimately clocking a 54.16 in finals after going 55.01 in prelims. Teammate Miranda Heckman was the only woman in the 200 free, swimming a 1:48.26 after going 1:47.21 at Big 12s last month.
• Texas A&M’s Ethan Gogulski time trialed a 1:42.01 that moves him to 33rd in the 200 back this season. That’s his 3rd-fastest time ever, outside of a pair of 1:41s from 2019 SECs.
• Fellow Aggie Elijah Sohn shaved a tenth of a second off of his lifetime best in the 200 free to win that event tonight with a 1:35.53.