This writeup was originally written live, as the meet unfolded. For the highlights, just read the sections underneath the event names. Items in italics are more details, and include recaps of B-finals. Also, be sure to scroll to the end to see which teams moved up and down on day 1.
It’s time for the first night of the 2011 Men’s NCAA Championship, where the first points of this meet will be earned.
There was a lot of fast swimming this morning, though we can’t be sure exactly how everyone is playing this meet until we see at least the first finals session. Stanford looked really good by breaking an American Record, though Auburn (whose relay is not made entirely of Americans) did them one better. Virginia’s Matt McLean looks as though he could give Florida’s Conor Dwyer a bigger challenge than expected in the 500 free, and Nathan Adrian is in a class all his own in the 50. The race of the night will be the 400 medley relay. Given that most of the top teams used less-than-full lineups in prelims, that race is wide open.
Cal didn’t look great in prelims, though it’s nowhere near time for them to panic. We know they took it easy on the 400 medley (Adrian didn’t swim it), and we’re pretty sure they were coasting a little on the 200 free relay. This is probably Cal’s weakest day of the 3, relatively speaking, so if Texas, Stanford, or anybody else hopes to challenge Cal, they need a big lead after tonight.
In Diving, 3 out of the top 4 divers out of prelims are out of the state of Texas: Texas A&M’s Grant Nel and Cam McLean, who sit 1st and 4th, and Texas’ Drew Livingston, who sits 2nd. And lurking behind them is Purdue’s David Boudia, who was 100 points off of his best score from prelims, but should win easily tonight with a performance anywhere near his potential. Besides Livingston, none of the top-6 teams earned a single scorer in diving tonight.
6:41 PM- Texas is going to have the big advantage in diving tonight, and I think that they’ll ride that to a lead after night 1. Stanford has looked great as well, especially in their relays.
6:47 PM- Getting Sam Metz into the B-final was huge for Cal. Meet starts in 13 minutes with the 200 free relay.
6:49 PM- Auburn finaled six 50 freestylers. Cal finaled three, and Stanford only 1. Cal probably adds Tom Shields to the finals relay. The only thing that will beat Auburn is pretty close to a U.S. Open Record from Nathan Adrian and a huge swim from Shields, who only has two relays to swim tonight.
7:00 PM- B-relays in the water. Clemson’s 2nd swimmer looked very close to a false start.
7:02 PM- Texas A&M men win a very tight relay over Clemson (who didn’t false start). Aggies 1:17.71, Clemson 1:17.76, Ohio State 3rd.
7:03 PM- Big win for the Aggie men, who didn’t qualify as many as they were used to for this year’s meet. They’re hoping for, at best, a top-15 finish.
7:04 PM- Love watching the first 25 of this relay. Awesome to see the wake as the swimmers move down the pool en masse.
200 freestyle relay
This looked like it was going to be a battle between Cal and Auburn. Stanford, though a deep relay, seemed to have maxed out their performance in prelims. But the Cardinals shocked the heck out of me by putting up a winning time of 1:15.26. This blew away the American Record that they set in prelims, and gave them a huge first kill in this meet.
Cal, as expected, added Tom Shields as their anchor, and dropped a huge chunk of time. This included an 18.74 leadoff from Nathan Adrian, and the only relay with all four swimmers under 19 seconds. Yet it just wasn’t enough to catch their mega-rivals. They finished 2nd in 1:15.30. Auburn had great swims from their two imports Adam Brown (18.86) and Marcel Chierighini (18.61) to bookend their relay, but the swimmers in the middle (Kohlton Norys and Karl Krug) just couldn’t quite match the middle legs from prelims. They finished 3rd in 1:15.58. The Texas relay slid all the way back to 6th, behind Arizona and USC (with only a 19.32 leadoff from freshman star Vlad Morozov).
7:13 PM- Adrian’s 18.74 is the 8th-best 50 free time ever, which ties the pool record and just barely is off of his American Record. I think he gets the AR in the individual.
7:15 PM- Up next is the individual 500 free, which will start in 10 minutes. Virginia’s McLean looked really good in prelims, but I don’t know how much more he has to go. Dwyer got a big lead in his heat and laid off, but will shoot for a sub-4:10 . Texas has two A-finalists. Those are the major story-lines. Could be a great race.
7:19 PM- Only 6 swimmers have ever broken 4:10 in the 500 free. McLean has come incredibly close with a 4:10.00 at 2008 ACC’s. Will he or Dwyer become the 7th (or 8th) tonight?
7:29 PM- Sam Metz having another big swim for Cal. He finishes hard, would be huge for Cal to pick up anything north of 6 points in this.
7:30 PM- Ryan Feeley from Michigan wins the B-final. He could be in the mix for the Wolverines’ 200 free relay. Grodzki, who’s an ultra-distance guy and will compete for the mile title tomorrow, takes 2nd.
7:33 PM- Matt McLean should be out fastest, and Michael McBroom should close the best.
7:35 PM- Dwyer needs to be careful on his flipturns, McLean’s look tremendous.
500 freestyle
This was supposed to be Conor Dwyer’s meet, and this was supposed to be Conor Dwyer’s race, as both the defending champion and NCAA Swimmer of the Year. But Matt McLean decided that he didn’t like the sound of that, and put his foot to the floor early in this meet. He won the 500 free in a fantastic time of 4:10.15, which is one of the fastest textile swims ever. He held a small lead early, but really gunned it on the last 75 yards to make this a blowout. McLean won this race on the walls, which are huge in distance short course swimming, because there are so many of them.
If Dwyer wasn’t going to win, he looked like he should at least be 2nd, but Stanford’s Bobby Bollier, who is on the US National Team, closed in an amazing sub-25 split (24.91) to out-touch Dwyer in 4:13.94, with Dwyer taking 3rd in 4:13.98.
Texas had two A-finalists (Jackson Wilcox 4th, Michael McBroom 8th) score after not scoring a single point in this race last season. That’s a great pickup for them. Cal’s Sam Metz, swimming in the B-final, finished 12th to score big points for the Bears in their weakest discipline: distance freestyle. Auburn freshman Zane Grothe finished 7th in 4:16.82, which was off of his school record in prelims. This is a huge development for Auburn’s future. Brett Hawke is going to continue to crank out 19-low sprinters, but if he’s now developing distance swimmers as well, the Tigers are going to be dangerous.
7:43 PM- So the big question now is do we temper expectations for Dwyer? Will he set the American Record in the 500 free, or even better, will he win the 400 IM? His prelims swim in the 500 was about 2 seconds off of his mark from SEC’s.
7:45 PM- About to start 200 IM. I’m standing by my original top 3: Staab, Chitwood, Cregar, though you can’t ever count out the defending champ Surhoff.
7:48 PM- Louisville’s Carlos Almeida wins the b-final in 1:43.97. I like my pick of him to place in the 200 breaststroke a whole lot better after that swim.
7:52 PM- Surrised that Cregar, the 400 IM’er, wasn’t out a little faster. Staab has the edge on freeestyle.
200 IM
This was originally seen as just sort of “another event” for Stanford’s Austin Staab. But for it to supplant the 50 free, which he is quite good at, as his Day 1 event, you had to know the Stanford coaches really had faith in his ability. He showed that ability hugely here to win in 1:41.57, which breaks Ryan Lochte’s pool record. This gives him the 9th fastest time in history, and moves him 5th on the all-time list behind only Phelps, Lochte, Bradley Ally, and high schooler David Nolan (who, by the way, would’ve won this race as a 12th grader this year).
Staab had the best butterfly leg by far, which we knew, but this swim was impressive because he kept pace with the backstrokers, the breaststrokers, and had just enough left on the freestyle to hang on for the win. Arizona’s Cory Chitwood, who’s a favorite in both backstrokes, took 2nd in 1:42.28, and Georgia’s Bill Cregar was 3rd in 1:43.56.
The defending champion Surhoff of Texas finished 4th in 1:43.58, and was just barely beaten by Cregar. Martin Liivamagi moved up a bunch for Cal to take 5th. Carlos Almeida of Louisville won the B-final in a great 1:43.97, which sets him up for big things in his specialty breaststroke events.
8:00 PM- Nailed the 200 IM! Perfect pick! Excuse me while I pat myself on the back.
8:02 PM- Home pool advantage goes to Michael Richards of Minnesota, who wins the B-final of the 50 free in 19.39 ahead of a pair of Auburn Tigers tied for 2nd.
8:04 PM- Men’s 50 free should be a race for 2nd.
50 free
First, let me give my apologies to Mr. Adam Brown. Adam, you go swim UK Nationals whenever you darn well please. It hasn’t affected his performance one bit at this meet. It looked as though Brown actually had this race won at the closing flags, but Cal’s Nathan Adrian used every inch of his 6’6″ frame to just out-touch the Auburn swimmer in 18.66. This is Adrian’s best time ever, and a new American Record. Brown was 2nd in 18.72, followed by Texas’ Jimmy Feigen in 18.92.
To put Brown and Adrian’s swims in perspective, they rank as the 4th and 8th fastest swims of all time, and make those two the 3rd and 5th best performers in history. (Between those two, Cesar Cielo (the fastest ever), and Fred Bousquet (4th fastest ever), this is going to be one heck of a race at this summer’s World Championships.) These two also combined for the fastest 1-2 finish in the history of the 50 yard free. Adrian also has the 7-fastest American performances ever. Tons of history in that race.
Hometown favorite Michael Richards, who probably wanted to be in the A-final, did his best to win the B-final in 19.39.
8:13 PM- Please watch David Boudia dive. Might be the best American diver we’ve had in decades.
8:15 PM- I wish we could include divers in our list of greatest names in swimming. Constantine Blaha would be near the top, without a doubt.
8:30 PM- Livingston looks great early. Boudia needs to kick it in on these last few dives.
8:35 PM- Tennessee’s Michael Wright generates some impressive power thanks to his huge size for a diver: 6’1, 190 pounds. Compare that to Cam McLean of Texas A&M, who currently sits 5th, at 5’3, 125.
8:38 PM- Boudia has overtaken Livingston by 3 points after 4 rounds. Boudia’s last two dives should score higher than Livingston’s, all else equal. He generally closes with a slightly higher degree of difficulty.
8:42 PM- Livingston badly over-rotates his 5th dive, which just about gives Boudia the event. Livingston drops behind Nel for 2nd.
8:44 PM- Boudia does a good, but not perfect, last dive, which seals this up for him.
8:47 PM- And Texas A&M’s Grant Nel nails his last dive to seal up 2nd place.
1-meter diving
Purdue’s David Boudia was given a strong challenge by Texas’ Drew Livingston early in the diving competition, as Livingston held a lead through 3 rounds and was very close after 4. But on the 5th round, which I like to call the “separation round,” Boudia’s huge international experience held him through to a solid dive, while Livingston faltered. After that, Boudia wasn’t going to be caught, and hit a great last dive to win in 461.00. It was about 10 points shy of his NCAA Record, but a good score none-the-less.
Livingston was hurt even worse by that 5th dive, as he slid behind Texas A&M’s Grant Nel. Nel finished 2nd in 425.85, and Livingston was 3rd with 413.20. This is Livingston’s weakest diving event (he didn’t even compete in it at Big 12’s), so he and Boudia should be in for a few more great battles. This shows a truth of college diving that huge consistency trumps flash.
8:54 PM- Thanks to Livingston on the diving, Texas has the lead headed into the final relay with 105 points. Stanford just behind in 104, followed by Cal with 94, and Auburn with 92.5
8:58 PM- B-final of the 400 medley is in the water. Auburn needs a serious bounceback to win the B-final. Cal should be the heavy favorite to win the A-final, but that might be the kiss of death.
9:03 PM- No reason for Arizona, out in lane 1, to not be in this race as well.
400 medley relay
Finally, a race that was nice and easy and just as expected. If this Cal medley relay has a weakness, it’s a small one on the backstroke leg (they’ve got good depth there, but not quite as much explosiveness as the other strokes). But if you’re going to beat Cal in this 400 medley relay, you need to quite literally bury them on that backstroke leg. But with backstroker Guy Barnea only a tenth off of the pace, and the defending champion in each of the other three distances on deck, nobody was going to come close to Cal. Check out the splits: Barnea (46.07), Dugonjic (50.73), Shileds (44.35), Adrian (41.13). And that’s despite being relatively safe and leaving quite a bit on the blocks in their relay starts. Their winning relay time was 3:02.28, which shattered Northwestern’s pool record by over 2 seconds.
Texas was 2nd, including a great 45.92 leadoff split from Cole Cragin that was faster than anyone else in the final (though a few were a little better in prelims). They touched in 3:06.10. Stanford, who won the earlier relay, placed 3rd in 3:06.52. Staab was 45.04 for them on the fly leg, and though Shields’ split was much faster, Staab was probably less-rested thanks to the 200 IM (Shields had no individual on day 1).
Auburn won the B-final in a much better performance than prelims-they cut off 3.5 seconds to finish in 3:06.76, which would’ve put them more where expected among the top 5 in the A-final. One notable split from prelims is Eric Ress’ 45.87. It shows that his hand is probably feeling pretty good. He, Loughran, and Cragin were all within .05 seconds in prelims, which should set up for an awesome individual backstroke, though Chitwood looked a bit off in this relay.
Overall Scoring
This meet was expected to be very tight at this point. As compared to psych sheet scoring, Texas is well ahead of where they should be, but if you include their diving points as well as the expected taper, even they’re about right on. Stanford is the one team who out-performed their expectations on day 1 (which took a near-herculean effort, thanks to some fast swimming all around).
Florida took a big scoring hit with, among other things, Dwyer not winning the 500 free. His teammates Marco Loughran and Brett Fraser, however, looked very good and should score some big points the next 2 days. The Gators currently sit in 7th, despite being seeded for 5th right now. Virginia is the notable team that’s well out-performing their seeds. They more than doubled their expected day 1 scoring.
Cal is expected to have a huge day 2. They should score over 200 points tomorrow, which will by far be the most. Florida also has a great opportunity to redeem themselves on the 2nd day of competition. Without a sprint freestyle event on day 2, Auburn will fall off the pace a little, though they did get a lot of great points from their other scorers on Day 1 (like distance swimmer Zane Grothe). Texas has great depth throughout all 3 days of competition, and should keep their scoring steady as everyone else shuffles around them.
Other teams expected to have huge 2nd days, and probably move up a lot in the standings, are Michigan, Ohio State, and Tennessee.
Top 10 scoring is as follows. Number in parenthesis is how many points the team improved or lost off of seeded points, and excludes diving points. This is a rough indicator of the relative performance to expect throughout the meet.
1. Texas 139 (+26.5)
2. Stanford 136 (+25)
3. Cal Berkeley 134 (+17)
4. Auburn 110.5 (+9)
5. Arizona 99 (-2.5)
6. Virginia 74 (+38)
7. Florida 70 (-31.5)
8. Southern Cali 62 (-1)
9. Michigan 57 (+9)
10. Texas A&M 49 (+4)
Actually 5th fastest, the announcer forgot Nolan. I think Surhoff won in a relatively weak 200 IM field last year.
Agree. With the illness hitting three teams last year the results from last year are weak andare not a good frame of reference. Staub beat the winning time last year in prelims. NOW,,, WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR WITH NOLAN!
Actually this the one diving event that Livingston has won, and it was his highest finish last year. Cal looks good, only five back-closer than last year-and Texas had a better first day overall. Stanford was great in the relay but about as expected otherwise.
Livingston won this event due to the relative weakness at the NCAA level. Internationally, he’s a (mostly) platform and (sometimes) 3-meter diver.
I agree, Braden, it’s a wonderful facility! I LOVE swimming there! And gophersports.com does a great job of broadcasting swimming events.
Lot of fast swimming out of Day 1…2 American records from the Stanford 200 Free Relay, McLean’s upset of Dwyer in the 500 Free, Adrian’s beastly 50 Free and the killer Cal 400 Medley relay. I can’t wait to see what Day 2 brings!! Looking forward to being at the pool tomorrow night for all the action.
I’m loving this NCAA webcast. They don’t do a ton of commentating, but what I really appreciate the most is the ability to watch the action live. Great job NCAA!!
Agreed Joe. It’s a nice touch that the women didn’t have. Another reason why this is one of my favorite facilities in the country.
I agree with that…but how about that swim from Adrian, and the (almost) comeback from Brown?!
Huge swim by Staab, but was expected (and he is now the 4th fastest swim in the 200 IM). Honestly, I thought Surhoff would perform a little better, though!
Actually 5th fastest, the announcer forgot Nolan. I think Surhoff won in a relatively weak 200 IM field last year.