2015 Men’s NCAA DI Championships: Quick Quotes From Day 2

Arizona’s Kevin Cordes on winning 100-yard breaststroke for a fourth-straight year:

“I went out and raced, did what I had to do tonight. I knew it was going to be difficult. I knew I was going to have to give it my best and just go out there and race and compete. Luckily I was able to do that, swim my own race.”

Arizona’s Kevin Cordes on season progression:

“I take a different approach to the season; I’m not tapering for midseason. That was a bit different. Coming into this meet I had to get my feeling back and get back on that form. I was able to do that tonight just by progression in the meet. I am happy with the result tonight and just moving forward to tomorrow. You always want to go faster, but it feels good to get the win too.”

Texas’ Will Licon on winning 400 IM: 

“It really depended on how the second part of the breaststroke went, because I know in the past, he (Chase Kalisz) has had monstrous breaststroke splits. I was just trying to get to that point, getting to that leg and to be able to have a little bit in the tank where I can swim a strong leg and also be able to finish the freestyle leg and not start sinking toward the bottom of the pool. Going into the last lap, I was fighting to put my head down and finish, see if I can come away with it.”

Texas’ Will Licon on winning two national titles in the past two days:

“I don’t think it has set in yet. I’m trying to finish out this meet as best we can and see if we can win the overall team title. It’s special… more than I could ever ask for and I’m sure if you were to ask me at the beginning of the season or at any point in my life if this would happen, I wouldn’t have said yes. It’s a little crazy.”

Cal’s Ryan Murphy on winning 100-yard backstroke a second straight year:

“Coming into the meet, I told you this last night, I wasn’t thinking about records or any of that. I would be lying, after last night, if I said it wasn’t on my mind. That was a goal going into tonight. I’m happy with how tonight turned out.”

“I place a lot of confidence on my training and my coaches have made adjustments to what I have done this year based on what they saw last year. That has paid off. The focus being on long course backstroke helps me a lot and that 100 back, I could pop off the back wall after the underwater, I know that I’m going to be able to swim those last 10 yards as good as anyone else. I couldn’t see anyone else. I was just in my zone, doing what I do.”

Texas head coach Eddie Reese:

“We were ahead last year at this time. We know we are a lot better on the third day than we were last year. We knew we were thin, we had people that had done some good times, but it was at conference, and we weren’t sure we could come back and for the most part they did. This time we have a better group. I’m not too excited because we didn’t do a real great job on the 800 free relay, saving people for tomorrow.” 

Texas head coach Eddie Reese on butterfly results:

“I wish I could tell you there is a reason they did that. If you read the plaque on the outside of the building, 1934, this is where butterfly was invented. It was butterfly with a breaststroke kick. It wasn’t until the 1950’s until the fly kick came in.

“I have a strong group of guys that kick well and when they flashed up (on the scoreboard), six after the morning, my rate got over 50. Physiologically, they are better at night. I expected them to be better. I knew Joseph (Schooling) and Jack (Conger) had not gone all out in the morning, but other guys got better.”

Texas’ Joseph Schooling on competing in 100-yard butterfly final with five teammates in the race:

“It was cool. It was my first A final and last year we had four or five guys in the A final and I saw that and knew I wanted to be a part of that group. I was lucky enough to be a part of that group and it was just such a cool feeling having six guys from Texas in the A final out of eight. I’m glad we could finish 1-2-3-4-6-8. It was a great feeling and great for Texas.”

Texas’ Joseph Schooling on being competitors with teammate Jack Conger and the rivalry:

“Jack is one of my best friends on the team and I’ve said before, I like to keep my in-pool affairs and out-of-pool affairs different. In the pool we push each other, but out of the pool we hang out like normal friends, and Jack got me twice, once in the Eddie Reese Invite, he kind of surprised me in the 50 fly, but he got me at Big 12s too. He ran me down like 3/4 of a body length the last 25 yards, so that kind of annoyed me so I saw him the last 25 just now and I was like, there is no way I’m going to let that happen again. I put my head down the last three strokes and was fortunate enough to get my hand on the wall first.”

Miami’s Samuel Dorman on the 3-meter springboard finals as a whole:

“Leading up to the finals I felt good, I was in the zone. I did all of my dives in warm-ups, felt good, and I tried to get in the same zone, stay in the same place that I was in yesterday. First dive wasn’t great, usually I start off with my best dive, a comfortable dive, so I started off with a double out and it went well. In between each dive I would try to forget about everything else and do it one dive at a time.

“I did inward, it went well, I did a back 3 1/2 and I’ve never done it like that before so that was a highlight to look over at my coach and see him just go crazy. Then did gainer, gainer went well, my coach, if you didn’t notice did a nice little jig at the end of it because he said if I got a 7.5 or an 8 on it he would start dancing. That was exciting and then front came and that’s kind of like my happy place. I just do that dive and forget about everything and usually it goes down. My last dive was pretty sketchy, I felt good going into it, but I hurled to the right corner of the board and kind of panicked a bit, but I did my best to stick with it and pulled through.”

Miami’s Samuel Dorman on winning at Iowa with head coach Randy Shannon being a University of Iowa alum:

“It’s huge for him. I mean 2013, same pool for Nationals here, I swept all of the springboard events which was awesome for him and then to win tonight, my fifth year, after working so hard with him and our other coach Dario is unbelievable. I have to thank them so much. They have done everything for me, they’re two other fathers and the best coaches I could ever ask for. I wouldn’t change a thing about it.”

USC’s Cristian Quintero on winning the the 200 freestyle national title:

“It’s pretty exciting, I really needed that. I was able to move on after the first swim, the 500 wasn’t so good for me, but I was able to pass it on, move on, and came really strong with that 200 free. I was able to win. It was a best time, so that was good, it was great. I wanted to be able to break the 32 career, but I’m still happy and I’m happy for my team.”

USC’s Cristian Quintero on what went well today:

“The 200-freestyle felt good and obviously that last relay (800-free relay) was an amazing comeback. We had very good teamwork. It was amazing, and I’m excited about what is going to come next.”

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About Tony Carroll

Tony Carroll

The writer formerly known as "Troy Gennaro", better known as Tony Carroll, has been working with SwimSwam since April of 2013. Tony grew up in northern Indiana and started swimming in 2003 when his dad forced him to join the local swim team. Reluctantly, he joined on the condition that …

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