The Michigan men won their 4th-straight edition of The Classic at SMU, but this year was probably the closest edition yet. This unique meet gives each team 8 swimmers plus one diver on their roster, and then the swimmers are split up into two heats. Each team can choose to put one swimmer in the A-heat, and one swimmer in the B-heat, and they are scored only against their heat.
The meet at a team level isn’t infinitely notable, but it does create for a very fun and fan-friendly format.
1 Michigan 315
2 Southern California 309
3 Florida 283.50 .
4 North Carolina 266.50 .
5 Southern Methodist University 245
6 Purdue 236
The Michigan men’s streak was almost snapped, but the decider of the meet came very early, as a flinch from USC All-American Vlad Morozov in the meet’s 4th event, the 50 free, resulted in a disqualification (though, he still coasted to a 21). He would have likely won that race handily, good for 16 points, which would have given the Trojans the lead.
Still, it speaks volumes about how well he recovered from the disqualification that the coaches of the 6 participants named him unanimously the MVP of the meet. He would take 2nd in the 100 breaststroke (54.84), and later win the 100 free in a huge 42.51. That’s a full second better than anyone else has been this semester, and further it’s more than a second better than he was at this same meet a year ago. He would also dominate relay action, including 19.0/42.0 medley relay anchors.
As for Michigan, they were strong throughout the meet. Junior Miguel Ortiz rocked the 100 backstroke to the tune of a 46.73. That gave him over a second-and-a-half victory ahead of USC’s Alex Lendrum (48.39). Michigan’s Connor Jaeger, who is having a great season of his own, took big points by winning the 500 free in 4:19.17. That makes him the first swimmer in the country this year to break 4:20 at two separate meets.
USC fought hard to get back into the point competition at the very end of the meet. That included winning two of the last three events (Morozov’s 100 free and a 1:47.31 win from Dmitri Colupaev in the 200 IM), but the gap at that point was too big to make up.
The highlights for Florida were in the IMs, where they won three of the four heats. Gator sophomore Connor Signorin won the A-flight in 3:47.28, which placed him ahead of Michigan sophomore Kyle Whitaker in 3:47.95. Whitaker was the NCAA runner-up in this event last season, and though Signorin was due for a big breakout this season this was a surprising (and confidence-boosting) result. Meanwhile, Florida freshman Eduardo Solaeche took the B-flight in 3:49.69.
Florida pulled a similar upset in the 200 fly A-Flight. There, sophomore Marcin Cieslak knocked off Michigan stud Dan Madwed 1:43.62-1:43.74. Both swimmers were A-finalists at NCAA’s last year, and both are expected to be again this season.
Another Florida freshman, Matthew Elliott, won the B-flight of the 200 IM in 1:48.43.
The Purdue Boilermakers, despite finishing last in the team scoring, did have a bright spot from senior Albert Miller, who topped the 100 breaststroke A-Flight in 54.69 ahead of Morozov (54.84). The caveat, though, is that Michigan’s Bruno Ortiz (younger brother of Miguel) won the B-Flight in 54.02.
Hey no worries man! I’m just glad that you’re as interested as I am in swimming 😉
To Joe Augustine, excuse me if I make some language’s faults. I make some efforts. Matt Elliott is among the big contenders to win the 200 breaststroke. You must know that the word pretenders is very close to the word in french and now I understand that for a competition between athletes I must use contenders. Thank you for the english lesson. I learn english every day.
I think you mean contenders there bobo, not pretenders hahaha 😉
I’m not a specialist of NCAA but the perhaps future american Vlad Morozov continues to improve and he will be tough to beat at the next NCAA championships in the 50 free and in the 100 free. Is he ready to swim under 41 seconds in the 100 free this year? However, this year, next year or in two years, he might beat the NCAA record. He’s only sophomore.
Kyle Whitaker was compared to Michael Phelps in 2009 after fantastic junior national championships and he has disappeared. Was he only a suit swimmer? Has he been injured? I don’t know but I’m waiting for big things from him in butterfly or in IM.
Matt Elliott is among the… Read more »
Good call, Josh.
I think the highlight of the meet was the race between Marcin Cieslak (UF) and Dan Madwed (Michigan) in the 200 fly, both popping 1:43s, Marcin outtouching Dan for the win 1:43.6 to 1:43.7. Matt Elliott also won the 200 breast in 1:57.7.