Louise Hansson Matches MacNeil at 2018 Texas Invite Day 3 Prelims

TEXAS HALL OF FAME INVITE

• Nov 28-Dec 1, 2018
• Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
• Prelims 10am CT, Finals 6pm CT
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Schedule

Women’s Recap

400 IM

Texas’s Evie Pfeifer recorded the top time of the morning, registering a 4:10.31 that’s about a half second off what it took to make a NCAA cut in this event last season. Fellow Longhorns Maxine Wolters (4:15.19) and Nora McCullagh (4:18.78) took the 3rd and 7th seeds.

The Arizona women continued to show up strong in the longer events by putting four swimmers into the top eight. The Wildcats were led by Hannah Cox, whose 4:11.41 is on par with what she swam here last year. Her teammates Mik Ranslem (4:16.79), Daniela Georges (4:17.52) and Ayumi Macias (4:17.77) took 4th-6th this morning, while Wisconsin’s Megan Doty (4:18.93) rounded out the top eight.

Of these eight, only Doty and McCullagh were in the A-final fo the 200 IM last night, while Cox and Macias were in the A-final of the 500 free, as was Pfeifer, who actually made both A-finals out of prelims, but scratched the 200 IM.

100 Fly

Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil has been hot on the heals of defending champion Louise Hansson this season, but Hansson responded this morning with a 50.09 that ties MacNeil’s time from the ACC-B1g Challenge earlier this month. Both women will be swimming the event tonight, setting up an epic virtual challenge to see which women will have the top time in the country halfway through the season.

Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson is primarily known as a backstroker, but any women who goes 1:53.0 in the 200 IM has to have four solid strokes, and this morning Nelson showed off her fly chops, taking the 2nd seed in 50.90, her first new personal best in this event since 2014. That swim also lowered the Wisconsin team record by almost a second, surpassing Ivy Martin’s 51.75 from 2015. Nelson now owns the Badgers’ records in the 100 fly, the 200 IM, and both backstrokes.

Texas’s Remedy Rule went 51.78 for a new personal best, and she’ll be joined by teammates Emily Reese (52.80) and Claire Adams (52.89) in tonight’s A-final.

Maddie Wright (52.38) and Catherine Sanchez (53.01) gave the Trojans three in the top eight, with Arizona’s Mackenzie Rumril also qualifying in 52.82.

200 Free

Allison Schmitt, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the long course version of this event, had the top time of the morning, a 1:44.37. This appears to be Schmitt’s first time swimming the 200 free in yards since went 1:40.62 in early 2015.

USC’s Tatum Wade was the next-fastest woman, dipping under 1:45 to touch in 1:44.91, almost the exact time where the NCAA invite cut fell last season.  Teammate Kirsten Vose also made the top eight with a 1:45.99.

Texas got solid times from Joanna Evans (1:45.08) and Evie Pfiefer (1:46.70), while Arizona’s Kirsten Jacobsen (1:45.78) and Hannah Cox (1:46.46) made the top eight as well.

We haven’t seen a lot of big swims from Harvard this week, but Samantha Shelton earned the right to swim in tonight’s A-final with a. 1:46.45, good for the 6th-fastest time.

100 Breast

It was a pretty sleepy 100 breaststroke prelims, with no swimmers under last year’s NCAA invite time of 1:00.11. Kennedy Lohman of Texas led the way in 1:00.49, nearly identical to what she went in finals at this meet last year. (She was faster in prelims, though, going 1:00.18 at this time last year).

USC took the next three spots with Riley Scott (1:00.61), Maggie Aroesty (1:00.66) and Kirsten Vose (1:00.77), setting up a great four-way battle for the win tonight. Scott was the only NCAA scorer in the bunch last year, with the other three looking for redemption. Aroesty and Lohman just missed scoring with top-20 finishes, and Vose sat out the year with a medical redshirt.

Arizona’s Mallory Korenwinder had a big drop from seed, going 1:01.41. She’ll look for her first career sub-minute swim tonight after going 1:00.08 last season.

100 Back

Wisconsin’s Beata Nelson, the 2017 NCAA runner-up and fastest returner in the 100 back, went a bruising 50.50 this morning, capping off a stellar 100 fly/back double. She’ll have a shot at her own personal best of 49.78 tonight, and already betters her season-best of 50.86 that led the nation heading into this weekend.

Texas took the next three places, two of them with their standout freshmen. Julia Cook was 51.80, two tenths off her lifetime-best and well under last year’s NCAA invite time. Meanwhile junior Claire Adams was 52.02 and freshman Grace Ariola 52.55, a hundredth away from last year’s NCAA invite time.

Arizona’s Aria Bernal tied with Wisconsin’s Jess Unicomb at 52.69 for the fifth spot. All should be in the mix for NCAA invite times tonight, though current fast swimming around the NCAA suggests the invite time might drop significantly from last year’s 52.54. Before this weekend’s meets even started, 14 women nationwide had been under that mark.

Men’s Recap

400 IM

After dabbling in the 500 free yesterday, Texas post-grad and Will Licon got back to his roots this morning, posting a 3:44.04 in the event where was the 2015 NCAA champion, for the top time this morning.

Texas freshman Braden Vines, whose previous best was a 3:51.81 from this March, had the 2nd-fastest time, a 3:44.79. That moves him within striking range of the 3:43.89 it took to get an invite last season. Defending NCAA champion Abrahm DeVine of Stanford, last night’s 200 IM winner, was close behind at 3:45.43.

Stanford put another two swimmers in the top eight: Alex Liang (3:47.47) and Daniel Roy, whose 3:48.80 improved his previous best time by a few tenths.

Arizona’s Issac Stump (3:48.14) and Sam Iida (3:48.44) also will swim in tonight’s A-final; Stump’s time was a new PR by over two seconds. Texas’s JohnThomas Larson had the 7th-fastest time with a. 3:48.72.

Notable names in tonight’s B-final (barring scratches) will include last night’s 500 winner, Brooks Fail (3:48.87), last night’s runner-up in the 200 IM, Matthew Willenbring (3:49.13), and the Stanford trio of Grant Shoults (3:49.44), Jack LeVant (3:50.70), and True Sweetser (3:51.87).

100 Fly

Oklahoma Baptist alum Daniel Ramirez was at the only man to break 46 this morning, taking the top seed with a 45.67. The next-fastest man was Arizona’s Chatham Dobbs (46.29).

Four Longhorns recorded the next four-fastest times: Tate Jackson (46.26), Jacob Huerta (46.49), Max Holter (46.89), and Sam Pomajevich (47.01). Texas would love to see at least one of those guys break the 46s barrier, giving them some scoring potential in an event in which they lost their only scorer from last year, Joseph Schooling.

Arizona’s Brendan Meyer (47.16) and Wisconson’s Mj Mao (47.20) are also slated into tonight’s A-final.

Licon popped a 47.25 for the 9th-fastest time of the morning, roughly 30 minutes after swimming the 400 IM.

200 Free

The men’s 200 free promised to be one of the marquee events of the meet, and prelims largely lived up to those expectations, despite a few notable absences.

3 men finished under 1:34, locking down their qualifying times. Texas’s Jake Sannem, a USC transfer, led the way with a 1:33.65. Arizona’s Jorge Iga broke the 1:34 mark for the first time with a 1:33.93, and Jeff Newkirk, last season’s 9th-place finisher at NCAAs, was right behind him at 1:33.95. Notably, all three men were faster than the fastest time at this morning’s Georgia Invite, a 1:34.0 by Michigan’s Patrick Callan.

Harvard’s Dean Farris went 1:34.48, and Alexei Sancov, one of the top 200 freestyles in high school class, was also under 1:34, touching in 1:34.93. Three-time defending NCAA champion Townley Haas was 1:34.91 out of the final heat, much better than his rough 500 yesterday which missed both A and B finals, but still well off the 1:32.40 he swam at this meet last year. On the other hand, Haas was 1:35.08 in prelims a year ago, so he is technically ahead of his 2017 pace, if he can pull off another multi-second drop in the final tonight.

Taking away some of the possible drama tonight, neither Drew Kibler nor Jack LeVant swam this event, after both men led off their 800 free relays Wednesday night with a 1:32s.

100 Breast

In a key swim for Texas, freshman Charlie Scheinfeld popped a 51.61 to lead 100 breast prelims. He beat Carsten Vissering of USC, who returns as one of the top few breaststrokers nationwide.

Texas has been hurting for a breaststroker since the graduation of Will Licon, and Scheinfeld is proving to be more than capable of filling Licon’s shoes. He backed up a 50.7 split on the medley relay last night with that 51.6 this morning – prior to this weekend, only three men nationwide had broken 52 – Vissering, defending NCAA champ Ian Finnerty and star Minnesota freshman Max McHugh. Scheinfeld officially locks in an NCAA A cut and will be invited to swim nationals this coming March.

Vissering was 51.75 this morning, bettering his season-best by about a tenth. he whould be in the hunt tonight, going out a tenth slower than Scheinfeld to the 50 but closing three tenths faster in the final 25.

USC’s Mario Koenigsperger was third in 52.54, and Stanford’s Matt Anderson (52.55) joined him under last year’s NCAA invite time. Stanford’s two big-name freshmen didn’t do much flashy in this event. Daniel Roy was 55.29 for 16th and Jon Cook 54.87 for 13th. Roy’s lifetime-best is 53.4; Cook’s is 53.9.

100 Back

Arizona’s Chatham Dobbs came through with the last big swim of the morning, going 46.03 to take the top spot in the men’s 100 back. He’s just under last year’s invite time (46.14) and finished ahead of Texas standout John Shebat (46.08).

Shebat and teammate Ryan Harty (46.20) will look to crack 46 tonight, along with USC’s Patrick Mulcare (46.27) and Harvard’s Dean Farris (46.38). NCAA 200 back champ Austin Katz declared a false start. He was 46.5 on the 400 medley relay last night.

SwimSwam’s Jared Anderson contributed to this report.