And Cal may have very well sealed up the title on this final prelim session at the 2012 Men’s NCAA Swimming Championships. They weren’t as perfect as they’ve been in the rest of this meet, but they were still good enough and assured themselves of enough guaranteed points that all they need to have in their minds tonight is “taking care of business,” and the points will come out in their favor.
Men’s 200 Backstroke
This final is going to be a great battle, as we finally got the race we’ve been waiting for from both Stanford’s David Nolan and Arizona’s Cory Chitwood. Nolan was the top seed in 1:40.54, and Chitwood is 2nd in 1:40.75. This battle tonight is going to be outstanding to watch (the pair hasn’t actually matched up yet, despite all three identical entries, as Chitwood hasn’t made an A-Final until now). Though the Arizona veteran looked very uncomfortable on the starting wall (a slipped start sunk him in the 100 back), he had no trouble getting this race off to a good start. The pair were in separate heats in the morning, and will now get the opportunity to watch each other in the final.
Mattew Swanston and Matt Thompson, both from Stanford, aren’t far behind, though, in 1:41.23 and 1:41.43, respectively. That will give the Cardinal three swimmers in the middle four lanes in tonight’s final. USC’s Alex Lendrum was 5th in 1:42.06, followed by Eastern Michigan’s Jacob Hanson in 6th.
Cal’s title hopes got a monumental lift when Mathias Gydesen’s 1:42.13 was good enough to get into the A-Final as the 7th seed, despite a fast overall prelim. Auburn’s Max Murphy will the 8th seed.
Further in the battle for the crown, Texas got three into the B-Final (Kip Darmody 12th, Cole Cragin 14th, and Austin Surhoff 15th). They would’ve liked to get Cragin back into the A, like he was last year, but they will be racing to block out Cal’s Marcin Tarczynski (9th) and try to make their three better than Cal’s two.
The biggest miss was Auburn’s Kyle Owens. He had a very good seed (6th) coming into this race, and though he’s swum well in the shorter backstrokes at this meet, his 1:43.52 was not a great effort. That left him 19th, and out of the points tonight (though, as a team, Murphy moving into the A-Final helps a bit).
Men’s 100 Free
We speculated after the 50 that Texas’ Jimmy Feigen looked like he might be vulnerable to not win the 100, despite the Longhorns needing badly for him to win from the team perspective. That premonition might be coming true, as Feigen was only a 42.81 for the 6th-seed in this morning’s prelims, though one would expect him to have a faster time in finals.
Meanwhile, USC’s Vlad Morozov looked very good to take the top seed in 42.13, which is better than he was in the prelims of last year’s meet. That makes something arounda 41.5 well within reach for him, so that will be the target for Feigen in the final – which will require a huge shift in mentality for him.
Cal’s Tyler Messerschmidt continued what has become a trend in this meet. Seth Stubblefield, who was so good in the 50, didn’t swim this 100, but Messerschmidt dropped half-a-second to move up to the 5th seed and become the only freshman to qualify for either final in this race.
Others in the A-Final will be Marcelo Chierighini (42.31) who as emerged as a 100 freestyle specialist, Aaron Wayne of Stanford (42.48), and Louisville’s Joao de Lucca (42.59). North Carolina’s Steven Cebertowicz made his second A-Final of the meet, and Kentucky’s Tyler Reed, one of the better swimmers in Kentucky’s program history, qualified 8th.
Ohio State’s Jason Schnur and Texas A&M’s John Dalton will be at the top of the B-Final, along with one more Longhorn in Dax Hill. Hill swam a 43.09, just .15 from making the A-Final, which is something that Texas really needed from him. Thus far in the meet, none of the cards are falling the right direction for Texas.
USC's Vlad Morozov looked very strong in the prelims of the 100 free with the top seed. (©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)
Men’s 200 Breast
The same two that raced to the touch in the 100 breaststroke will be back center-stage in this 200. Louisville’s Carlos Almeida put on the big taper he’s been waiting for to take the top seed in 1:52.82 (his best time of the season by over two seconds), and Arizona’s Kevin Cordes was 2nd in 1:53.19. Martin Liivamagi of Cal was 3rd in 1:53.23, with his teammate Trevor Hoyt just behind in 1:53.34.
The top 8, in fact, is nearly identical to the 100, except that Princeton’s Jonathan Christensen made 7th (instead of Indiana’s Cody Miller -15th and into the B). With Cal scoring three A-finalists and Texas only one (Degending champion Eric Friedland was 8th, Nick D’Innocenzo was in the B-Final)m this race pretty much will seal up the meet in tonight’s finals, barring any disqualifications.
Look out for Arizona’s Carl Mickelson (5th – 1:53.50) in the final as well – he’s a better 200 breaststroker than is Cordes in relative terms, and should be well into the 1:52’s in the final.
Arizona put two more swimmers (Austen Thompson 9th, Kevin Munsch 10th) into the B-Final, and Stanford has Curtis Lovelace there as well in 15th. This will be a huge swing-race and should put Arizona into a solid hold on 3rd place tonight.
Louisville's Carlos Almeida took the top seed over Kevin Cordes in the 200 breaststroke. (©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)
Men’s 200 Fly
At least one Texas swimmer still wants the National Title – and that’s Neil Caskey, who has provided huge swims for the Longhorns in this meet race-after-race. He had a big lead over Cal’s Tom Shields in the last preliminary heat going into the final turn in this race. His last wall opened him up Shields’ direction, and seeing how far he was out in front of the field, he put the big-time breaks on for the last 25. That allowed Shields to pass him (more from Caskey slowing down than Shields’ now famous last wall) for the top seed in 1:41.99.
Caskey did take 2nd though in 1:42.52, which is a new Texas Record (breaking the old mark held by Ricky Berens from 2008).
Stanford’s Bobby Bollier finally had a good swim in this meet after looking absolutely dreadful in the 500 free and the 100 fly. He’s the defending 200 fly runner-up, and took the 3rd seed in the prelims with a 1:42.57. Still doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to get down and challenge Caskey and Shields for the title, though.
Cal’s Will Hamilton has had an outstanding meet, and he had another great swim in his best event the 200 fly (though, he didn’t have the huge drops like we saw in his 200 and 500). He will be the 4th seed in 1:42.70.
Florida’s Marcin Cieslak was 5th in 1:43.22 (I think he actually is still in the medal hunt as well), and Stanford got some good news when David Mosko, returned from injury, took 6th in 1:43.28. Tonight, Mosko will have the most ambitious of doubles, as he’ll swim the mile before the meet. In that sense, at least, it’s actually a good thing for him that he’s only in the 2nd (of 4) heats in that mile, as this will give him plenty of recovery time between the two races.
Cal’s Robbie Sullivan will be in the B-Final with the 12th-best swim of the prelim, and Caskey will be Texas’ only scorer.
Wisconsin’s Daniel Lester again failed to final in this 200 fly. The junior has been on the verge of a huge breakthrough for three years, so look for him next season in either fly race when he’s not racing home from Australia to compete. Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker was also surprising to not make even the B, as he tied Lester at 1:44.63 for 17th.
Though not making the finals, a pair of impressive Texas freshmen (Kip Darmody and Tripp Cooper) each dropped big time to go 1:45’s in this race. Cal’s Seth Stubblefield scratched this race, presumably to focus on the 400 free relay, but next year I think we’ll see him entered in the 100 free as his Saturday individual event instead.
Men’s 400 Free Relay
USC looked angry about their DQ in Friday’s 800 free relay when they swam this prelim. They went out hard, full-guns-blazing, and took the top seed in the race in 2:50.51. That included a 42.2 from Morozov on the leadoff and a 42.0 from Dimitri Colupaev on the 2nd leg. They’ve switched their order a bit from Pac-12’s and have put relay super-anchor Jeff Daniels as their last swimmer. He split a 43.27 in prelims, but should be faster in the final.
Auburn took 2nd in 2:51.06, with a good 41.8 anchor from Marcelo Chierighini that was both his best relay swim of the meet as well as one of the better splits in the field.
The best split in the field honor went to Stanford’s Aaron Wayne with a 41.6 for their 3rd-place relay that swam a 2:51.49. Wayne has thrived on relay opportunities so far in this race. Cal was 4th in 2:51.61 (with a 42.33 anchor from Shields), but every leg of that relay can be faster in finals. Messerschmidt, Stubblefield, and Fabio Gimondi are all freshman, and though they’re all probably getting tired by the end of an emtional meet, they all need to go 42’s in finals (they were 43’s).
Arizona was 5th, and Texas 6th. Hill and Feigen were strong on the bookends, but their middle needs work – freshman Charlie Moore in 44.18 was the slowest split of any of the top 8 teams. They will swap him out in finals – probably for another freshman Youngquist – and should be good to go for finals. Don’t let their seed fool you – they’ll be in this race at the touch.
The other teams in the A-Final will be Florida State and Texas A&M. Both of those teams will be making their first appearances in a swimming A-final in this race (excluding the 1650 free, which is a timed final).
Louisville, Michigan, and Florida will all be in the B-Final. Harvard also made the 16th seed, while Ohio State just missed in 17th.
USC's Jeff Daniels will try and anchor USC to a win in the 400 free relay tonight, though he'll have to be faster to fight off Cal and Auburn. (©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)
Full Live Meet Results available here.
One nit…Cal’s butterflyer in the B final is Robbie Sullivan. Bobby Sullivan is a Cal diver who graduated in 2011.