Sean Fletcher of Michigan on night 2 of the 2013 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
100 Fly, as reported by Braden Keith
Tom Shields successfully navigated the first half of his 100 fly/100 back double with a 44.59, which is .17 seconds faster than he was at last year’s meet. Shields looked very good through this 100 fly, showing no apparent signs of fatigue that would hit him perhaps a little later in the session.
One of our correspondents, Tony Carroll, said to me right before the race started that he thought Shields and Marcin Cieslak from Florida both looked very relaxed before the race. He called that dead-on: the two swimmers were the fastest on the back-half, and the fastest overall, as Cieslak finished 2nd in 45.35.
Michigan’s Sean Flecther took 3rd in 45.54: another move up for the Wolverines after he was 7th in the morning. That was balanced out by Miguel Ortiz moving down to 4th place in 45.79.
Cal’s Marcin Tarczynski made more positive strides for the Golden Bears with a 45.97 for 5th. Arizona’s Giles Smith, who was the runner-up last year, was crazy-fast off the blocks, but couldn’t really get going when he hit the water. He was 6th in 46.11, followed by North Carolina State’s Barrett Miesfeld (46.14) and Ohio State’s Tim Phillips (46.19).
Stanford’s Aaron Wayne won the B-Final in 46.09, followed by Michigan State’s bJacob Jarzen in 46.25.