2017 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 22 – Saturday, March 25
- IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Texas (results)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Event Previews
- Live Results
- Thursday Morning Heat Sheet
A disqualification to Alabama bumped California’s 400 medley relay into the A final after the Golden Bears swam an alternate lineup in prelims.
Alabama qualified 6th overall this morning in 3:04.35, but was DQ’d for a violation on the butterfly leg. Meet announcers indicated flyer Luke Kaliszak wasn’t turned toward his stomach coming off a wall.
It was nearly a disaster for Cal, who had A final IMer Matt Josa disqualified earlier in the meet, letting Texas’s Jon Roberts into the A final. The Bears were 2nd in this relay a year ago and seem very likely to move up tonight, meaning a 9th-place finish in prelims could have cost in the ballpark of 16 points. They’re still in tough shape to catch Texas, but Alabama’s DQ ensures the Bears can score big points in that relay tonight.
Cal swam without Olympic champ Ryan Murphy this morning, and backstroker Quah Zheng Wen was only 46.25 – well slower than Murphy’s lifetime-best of 43.49. Cal could also add in Josa on fly tonight to take a shot at a top-3 finish or better.
In another interesting DQ quirk, Arizona was bumped up to 16th place for the second time this morning. The Wildcats also nabbed a bonus scoring swim in the 200 free relay thanks to a DQ from USC.
GO MISSOU!!
I hate that call. I hope it was obvious, and the dude pushed off and kicked on his back – which I doubt happened. This isn’t trying to sneak in an extra fly kick or two off a breast wall.
It was fairly obvious. Not quite a Lochte turn but clearly visible on camera. He is mainly a backstroker so there might have been something to that strategy.
Lucky Bears.
That was a foolish gambit…this meet is too fast, too deep to assume anything. I’m sure the Bears will swim angry tonite. Outside smoke, baby.
Not sure anyone was expecting the 400MR to be over a second faster in prelims, and Dave was probably confident in his prelims group getting a good spot. Just so happened they needed a little luck to push them in. I’m sure a ton of teams are going to put up some more A-relay guys for their prelims tomorrow after seeing how much of a tear everyone was on today.