2023 Ohio State Last Chance Meet – Men
- March 5, 2023
- McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion, Columbus, Ohio
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “2023 Last Chance Qualifier-Men” (or search “Columbus”)
The Ohio State Buckeyes expanded their possible NCAA Championship roster by two on Sunday morning at their home Last Chance Meet.
Senior Chachi Gustafson swam a 1:42.42 in the 200-yard fly in prelims. That undercut his previous season best of 1:43.21 from last week’s Big Ten Championships.
Pending results of other Last Chance meets on Sunday, that ranks him 21st in the NCAA this season, up from about 42nd. With between 28-32 swimmers typically earning NCAA invites in each event, that safely puts him in NCAA qualifying range.
That 200 fly looks like it might be one of the few events where the NCAA Invite cutline will be slower than last year, albeit only by maybe a tenth.
Freshman Mason Edmund moved into qualifying position as well with a 14:53.54 in the mile. That dropped more than 12 seconds off his previous best time of (season and lifetime) from Big Tens, where he finished 8th in 15:05.62.
A week more of rest moved him from outside of the top 50 to 26th in the NCAA this season. That’s not a stone-cold lock but most years, that would get him in – pending other last chance swims.
Ohio State has, at a minimum, all five relays qualified for NCAAs. Individually, Ruslan Gaziev, Charlie Clark, and Alex Quach look like locks, with a few more close but needing good swims in finals to earn their invites.
Mason is having a breakout season as freshman. I bet he will be competing with Charlie by the end of next year.
Mason. Welcome to the show. Good luck!