The first night of NCAA’s will be filled with great individual races, but perhaps none more intriguing and cutthroat than the men’s 200 IM.  First things first: making the A-final in this event is not a sure thing for anyone in this event.  Nine of the top ten top finishers from last season are returning.  Throw Sebastian Rousseau into the mix along with 5th-seed Stephen Schmuhl, a red-hot Nic Fink, and a revived Eric Ress, and we already have twelve A-final-caliber names without digging very far into the psych sheet.
- Kyle Whitaker of Michigan is the top seed heading into the meet after setting a Big Ten record with a 1:41.14 last month.  The three-time Big Ten champion will be looking for his first career NCAA title, but will have to perform better than his previous three years; although he’s made numerous A-finals at NCAA’s, he has yet to drop from his seed time in any event at the big meet.
- Defending champion David Nolan is the second overall seed.  The Stanford junior from Hershey, Pennsylvania turned in a new Pac 12 meet record of 1:41.49, easily the best pre-NCAA swim of his career.  Unlike a lot his competitors, Nolan will have already swam four times by the time the 200 IM comes around, so fatigue could play a factor.
- Whitaker’s teammate Dylan Bosch, a sophomore from South Africa, is the third seed.  He’s nearly a second ahead of where he was at this point last season when he finished sixth at NCAA’s.
- Two-time defending ACC Champion and conference record hold Pavel Sankovich sits fourth coming into the meet.   The Florida State senior had a disappointing NCAA’s in 2013, but he’s coming into this meet over a full second faster than last year.  With another season of experience under his belt, Sankovich could play spoiler towards the top of the A-final.
- Indiana’s Stephen Schmuhl will be looking to have a better NCAA’s than 2013, where he added over a second to his seed time to miss out on a second swim.  He’s in better shape this year, though, after crushing his lifetime best by more than a second and a half at Big Ten’s to earn the fifth seed in 1:42.05.
- After experimenting with the 500 freestyle last year at NCAA’s, Sebastian Rousseau is back in the 200 IM at this meet for the first time since 2011.  Rousseau had one of the more impressive summers of any collegiate swimmer, and will looking to ride that wave of momentum to a top finish for the Gators.
- Another Gator, Marcin Cieslak, sits right behind Rousseau on the psych sheet.  The Polish senior has finished second two years in a row (he nearly held off Nolan last year), and with a little more backend speed, could see himself on the top of the podium.
- Georgia sophomore Chase Kalisz rounds out the top eight.  This event might be a little short for him, but Kalisz has developed more and more speed since he arrived in college.  With his vastly-improved butterfly and backstroke, the second-half deficit he’s been accustomed to having to overcome should be significantly smaller.  That could be dangerous for everyone involved.
- Eric Ress is having a massive comeback year after a ho-hum 2013.  His 1:42.95 was easily a lifetime best, and if he can power through his breaststroke a little quicker, he’ll have a shot at a solid finish.
- Nic Fink has been on fire for the last 10 months, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down.  The Bulldog breaststroker didn’t have a great IM at NCAA’s last year, but with the way he’s been swimming, he could easily end up in the top 8.
- A pair of Cal Bear All-Americans–Josh Prenot and Marcin Tarczynski–are sitting a little further down the psych sheet, as well.  Like Kalisz, Prenot is probably better geared for the 400 IM, but he’s still very dangerous over this distance.  While Tarczynski hasn’t looked the same since his upset victory in this event back in 2012, we can’t leave his name out of the conversation.
- Cody Miller of Indiana, last year’s third place finisher, is sitting 12th currently.  Rather than lighting the pool on fire like he did at 2013 Big Ten’s, Miller is hanging back in the shadows a bit more.
Top 8 picks with seed times:
Expect Cieslak, Nolan, and Rousseau to be out in front at the 100. Â Miller, Bosch, Whitaker, will close the gap over the next 75 yards, but Nolan will have enough in the tank to hold them off.
1. David Nolan – Stanford, 1:41.49
2. Marcin Cieslak – Florida, 1:42.34
3. Kyle Whitaker – Michigan, 1:41.14
4. Dylan Bosch – Michigan, 1:41.66
5. Cody Miller – Indiana, 1:43.30
6. Sebastian Rousseau – Florida, 1:42.22
7. Josh Prenot – Cal, 1:42.62
8. Pavel Sankovich – Florida State, 1:41.92
Darkhorse: Tom Kremer from Stanford and Ryan Murphy of Cal. Â Kremer, last year’s consolation final champion, has yet to really show anything for the Cardinal. Â We haven’t seen Murphy get a good shot at this race in a while. Â With a little bit of breaststroke work with coaches Dave Durden and Nort Thorton, Murphy could pop off a 1:43 to end up in scoring range.
Hint…
Tom Kremer is from Stanford.
The author of the article is from Stanford.
Yep. Pretty sure that’s been spelled out already. But he’s also seed well, well beyond the top 16, and was the consolation champ last year. He’d be almost anyone’s dark horse, not just mine.
Morgan… When will you learn?
You’ve got to pick MY teams guys or else I’m just going to label you a homer.
— every troll on the boards
why would a ‘dark horse’ be someone who ‘might’ score in consoles???
Because he also ‘might’ pop something out a score in finals. Since he’s shown he’s capable of that kind of speed. That’s what a dark horse is.
Who’d be yours?
Again, Nolan with the win. Problem is he WONT! I cannot take this Stanford favorite anymore. He is done, he wont win, get rattled, and his whole year is down the drain. The days of Stanford greatness are lonnnnnnnngggggggggg gone.
Got any intellegent reasoning for this or is it just coming out of your butt?
what has this “stanford favorite” done to make you think that he won’t? can’t believe i’m saying this but Nolan is a great swimmer and a potential contender for most of his events.
This event has so much parity this year… I’m not sure how they are going to fit 12 swimmers into the final. 🙂 I think Nolan defends, Cieslak second, and then behind that, a 10 way tie for 3rd.