The summer of 2011 will feature a huge meet in the FINA World Championships, but that doesn’t mean it’s too soon to begin looking at the 2012 NCAA season. Over the next few months, we will count down the top 12 teams from last year’s NCAA Championships, along with a few teams that we expect to break through, until we finsh with the two defending National Champions from Berkeley. Grade levels as cited are for the 2011-2012 season, unless otherwise indicated. To keep track of all of our season previews, we’ve added a link in the menubar, or you can click here to see them all.
Key Additions: Mans Hjelm (back/sprint free), Tristan Slater (breast), Benjamin Scheffer (sprint free/back), Eduardo Santana (sprint free), Ryan McFall (sprint free/fly)
Key Losses: Brad Craig (10 points, 2 NCAA Relays), Michael DeRocco (4 NCAA Relays), Michael Wright (12 NCAA Diving Points)
2010-2011 Look-Back: This Tennessee men’s team, which is compartmentalized from the women’s program with a different coaching staff, sit in a very similar position to the Lady Vols. They finished 12th at the NCAA Championships thanks in huge part to some big points from great relay swims. Much like the women, the men had a huge breakout from redshirt junior Ryan Harrison, who entered NCAA’s with the country’s top time in the 200 free (before finishing tied for 10th) and a top 8 time in the 500 (before failing to final at NCAA’s).
Sound like a familiar story? Just like their female counterparts, the Tennessee men didn’t live up to their SEC Championship performances when they got to Minnesota for NCAA’s. Aside from most of their relays, and a few good swims here and there, most of the Volunteer men didn’t have a great meet. Had they performed closer to their in-season standards, they would have certainly finished in the top 10.
Irish Charm: The story of the Tennessee team this year will be Irish native Ryan Harrison, who is a long-time veteran of international competition. As a freshman in 2010, he was flirting with NCAA finals in his individual events, but last year he really entered the country’s focused-vision when he entered NCAA’s with a nation-leading 1:32.38 in the 200 free. Though he ended up with a poor swim in prelims to get stuck in the B-final at NCAA’s, if he had been closer to his season-best he should have easily medaled.
I wouldn’t expect him to make that mistake again this year. A 1:32 is an impressive time, regardless of which part of the season it’s swum in. Nothing less than A-finals in both the 200 and 500 should be an expectation for 2012.
Backstroke Keys: Much of Tennessee’s success in the medley relays last year, specifically the 200 where they finished 8th at NCAA’s, was due to senior Richard Henahan‘s skills in the sprint backstrokes. Indiividually, he placed 13th in the 100 backstroke (47.26, though he was a 46.5 in prelims), and is even better in the 50 (where he relay split a 21.7). He was also a part of Tennessee’s sprint freestyle relays.
The Volunteers will need him to be even more special this season, as they graduate both the breaststroke (Brad Craig) and butterfly (Michael DeRocco) legs of both medley relays.
Pushing Henahan the whole way will be sophomore Sam Rairden, who had a great NCAA Championship meet. He finished one spot behind Henahan at NCAA’s in the 100 back (47.44) and was marginally better in the 200 (27th-1:44.41). He’s already got spots on all three freestyle relays, and with splits as fast as 19.5/43.0/1:36.8, is a little bit better on his stomach than is Henahan.
These two, besides Harrison, will be huge factors in Tennesse’s success this year, though they’ll be among good comapny as there’s a highly-impressive young backstroking group in the NCAA right now – All 8 ‘A’ Finalists from 2011 return.
The Replacements: As we’ve mentioned, Tennessee will lose both their top breaststroker and butterflier from last year’s roster, including the defending SEC Champion in the 200 breaststroke Brad Craig.
The favorite to take over for Craig is senior Jake Epperson, who was 25th (54.02) and 24th (1:56.42) in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at NCAA’s last year.
A darkhorse candidate for the spot is actually Brad’s little brother, Drew, who came in as an unheralded recruit but excelled in the backstrokes last season. With Tennessee loaded in the backstrokes, there’s a chance that Drew will try his hand in the breaststroke (an event where he swam a 56-mid at an October meet, showing his potential). At any rate, Drew’s rare combination of stroke-skills (Texas A&M’s Amini Fonua is another one who comes to mind that is a backstroker/breaststroker) should make him a great IM’er.
The race for the butterfly spot, on the medleys at least, is a bit more wide-open. The fastest returning butterflier from 2011 is Norwegian sophomore Oystein Hetland with a marks of 48.48 in the 100. I see him being pushed heavily by Hungarian junior Norbert Kovacs, who had bests of 50.02/1:46.45 last season.
I expect Kovacs to be an NCAA B-finalist in the 200 this seaosn, and Hetland should be the man for the 200 medley. And while Hetland had the better 100 time last year, don’t count out Kovacs’ experience as a 2008 Olympian, meaning that he spent time training with the incredible Hungarian butterfly group that includes USC’s defending NCAA Swimmer of the Year Katinka Hosszu and Beijing silver-medalist Laszlo Cseh.
The Freshmen: Tennessee reached out again to the Eastern European region that has been so good to them when they grabbed Swede Mans Hjelm in the class of 2011. He’s one of Sweeden’s brightest young male swimmers (though that’s not as exciting as being one of Sweden’s bright you female swimmers) and competed at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010. His highest finish there was 9th in the 50 backstroke.
Converted from Short Course Meters, which is usually a pretty reliable conversion, he has a career-best of 47.76 in the 100 backstroke (though that was swum in rubber). If that holds up, he could potentially knock off all of the afore-mentioned backstrokers for the medley relay spot as only a freshman. He could also immediately become one of the country’s top 50-backstrokers, with a (rubber) LCM converted 21.16 (about half-a-second faster than the incumbent, Richard Henahan).
Similar to someone like Damir Dugonjic at Cal, he has the potential to be lights-out in a very limited range of events, though Hjelm is an even better freestyler than that comparison indicates. Converted from textile-bests, he’s already gone a 44 in the 100 free and a 20.7 in the 50. He might not crack those sprint relays as a freshman, but after some more big graduations next year, he’s going to be front-and-center for the Vols.
Tennessee also brings in Benjamin Scheffer, the number two recruit out of Kansas, who adds even more depth to their backstroke/sprint free groups. His bests in the freestyles are 21.6/46.72, and he’s gone sub-50 in the 100 back with a 49.97 from last year’s SCY Junior Nationals. His best event, however, is probably the 200 back, where he has a career-best of 1:47.2, and that should be the first event that gets him to Nationals, though not for a few years.
British swimmer Tristan Slater brings in a converted 55-low in the 100 breaststroke, and Ryan McFall was the runner-up at last year’s Missouri State Championships with a 20.72 in the 50 free, and state champion in the 100 fly at 49.70. Overall, this was a big class of 9 swimmers that has only one big-impact freshman, but builds a ton of depth for the long-term health of the program.
Diving: Alone with Auburn, the Tennessee men had one of the two best diving programs in the SEC last season. Though they’re graduating Michael Wright, who placed 7th at NCAA’s in the 1-meter last year, they will bring back senior Ryan Helms, who is a more balanced performer andscored two B-final placings last season in Minneapolis. Also coming back next year will be junior diver Jordan Mauney. Mauney has shown steady improvement in his two seasons at Tennessee, after winning a HS State Championship in 2009, and should place well enough on the platform next season to qualify for NCAA’s.
2011-2012 Outlook: 2012 will be an emotional season for the Volunteer men after the loss of long-time, immensely-loved assistant Joe Hendee to brain cancer in April. But they will regroup around a veteran returning core and last year’s SEC Coach of the Year John Trembley. Though Tennessee, who places a lot of emphasis on relays, graduated some important cogs to the wheel, this year should be a good demonstration of the way this program recruits. Every year, they bring in a small nucleus of “flash” swimmers supplemented by great depth that develops well towards their junior and senior years. For that reason, I’ll peg the Volunteers to hold serve right around last year’s 12th-place finish. Just like we said with the women, however, their fortunes could drastically improve if they swim best times at NCAA’s instead of SEC’s.
Shoutout to my boy, Ben Scheffer! Shotgun makes a mess!