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 2.
The Texas Longhorns hold a very slim lead headed into day 2 of the competition. Cal and Stanford are just behind them, and both look very strong. Virginia has thus far been the big surprise of the meet. Though great swims from Matt McLean and Scot Robison aren’t a “surprise” per se, the whole team has really stepped up their game. I don’t want to sound cliche, but you can’t help but believe that they’re doing it in honor of their fallen Wahoo brother Fran Crippen.
At any rate it’s time for probably the most action-packed day of the meet: loaded with 100’s of the strokes and the 200 freestyle. Lots of quick, splash and dash action, so be sure to refresh frequently.
Here we go!
6:53 PM- T-minus 7 minutes until the 200 medleys take to the blocks. Gotta like Cal’s chances here. Texas will be counting on another big swim from butterflier Woody Joye to pull the upset. If Auburn wants to move up, they need a sub-19 split from freestyler Drew Modrov (or whoever replaces him on the anchor), and Adam Klein to do just a little more. Auburn counting on a good freestyle split and a National Team breaststroker? Gotta like those odds for 2nd place.
6:57 PM- First up is the B-relay. I think this comes down to Michigan and UNLV. Fastest butterfly split in prelims belonged to UNLV’s Cody Roberts in 20.09…that’s what I call FLYING!
7:02 PM- UNLV wins the B-final in 1:26.1, with another awesome swim from Cody Roberts on the butterfly. Penn State takes 2nd.
7:05 PM- Cal swims Adrian on the medley this year, and NOT the 800. That’s a bit of a surprise.
200 medley relay
Cal made a big statement to start day 2 with a winning 200 medley relay time of 1:23.12, which is the 2nd-fastest time in history (and the best in textile). Texas did everything they needed to in order to make this race a battle, but Cal changed strategy this season and added Nathan Adrian to their finals relay (whereas last year, and in prelims, it was Josh Daniels, with Adrian being saved for the 800 relay). Cal was just too good. I don’t think under similar circumstances (aka, no rubber suits), there has ever been an NCAA medley relay as good as this one. Oh yeah, and, no big deal, Adrian anchored in an 18.1…with a safe start. That guy has unreal speed.
Texas, thanks to a great leadoff of 21.00 from Cole Cragin, finished 2nd in 1:24.13, which is a winning-caliber time in any other year. This season, it almost looked pedestrian (though it’s a young relay, so they could be dominant next season). Auburn was 3rd in 1:24.56, followed by Arizona (with freshman Mitchell Friedemann swimming backstroke instead of superstar Cory Chitwood), and Stanford was 5th. This was no big surprises for any of the teams, and about as expected.
7:14 PM- Cal fans showed up huge for night 2. Besides a loaded parents section, they’ve got over 100 alum in the stands. Auburn used to dominate these meets, it seemed like, but Cal is clearly the big dog in the stands this year.
7:15 PM- Pulling for Conor Dwyer to salvage something and win the B-final of this 400 IM.
7:16 PM- In the A-final, you’ve gotta like a Cregar win. He’s been so much faster than anyone else in the field. Tyler Harris should cruise into a runner-up finish. Harris is a backstroker-breaststroker, and top seed Austen Thompsen should take the lead on the butterfly. Cregar is a back-half swimmer, and Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker is solid the whole way through.
7:19 PM– Cal took the lead by 1 point after the medley relay. Texas will jump back in front after this IM, before Cal takes it back after the 100 fly. At that point, Cal should lead the rest of the way, barring anything monumental happening.
7:21 PM- Also interested to see how Florida’s Mike Joyce holds up in the A-final in lieu of Conor Dwyer. He’s the 7th seed headed into finals, and a good swim from him will be huge emotionally for Florida as they fight back towards the top 5.
7:29 PM- Dwyer had a huge B-final swim (maybe a B-final record?) to win in 3:42.49. He took control about halfway through the breaststroke, and as a back half swimmer wasn’t going to give it up. He needed that swim this morning though, to make the A-final (would’ve been 2nd in prelims). Virginia’s Matt Houser was out huge on the front end, and fought valiantly, but slipped up on the breaststroke as Texas’ Surhoff took 2nd.
400 yard IM
The key to a great IM’er is that they don’t panic. Especially swimmers like Georgia’s Bill Cregar, who know that the back half of their race by far exceeds their front half. He didn’t panic, and waited until about 125 yards to go to make his move with a great final breaststroke turn, which he carried into a lead going towards the freestyle. He was actually the fastest split on each of the last four 50’s, which makes this 3:40.97 just about a perfect swim for him. Austen Thompson was out to a commanding lead early in this race, but really lost this race on the back half, which is surprising because in theory he should be stronger there. But that’s why they swim the races.
Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker, who is only a freshman, continued the great Michigan IM tradition (Tyler Clary, Tom Dolan, amongst others) by placing 2nd in this race. He overtook the rest of the field with a great freestyle leg. He touched in 3:41.69. North Carolina’s Tyler Harris was 3rd in 3:42.49.
Conor Dwyer, who entered this race with the 3rd-fastest time ever from SEC’s only made the B-final, but there he swam a 3:42.49 that would’ve tied Harris for 3rd. We did find out tonight that he has been suffering throughout the meet from a nasty stomach virus, and though he seems to refuse to use that as an excuse, it probably explains most of his swims so far.
7:46 PM- Staab was great in the IM, but thus far I just think Shields has looked better overall this meet. Plus, it’s his first swim of the session, so he’ll be a little more rested.
7:48 PM- Cal actually held onto the lead. With 3 A-finalists in the 100 fly, they’re going to extend that here, and not look back for the rest of the meet.
100 fly
Austin Staab had awesome early speed in this race, with an opening split in 20.94. He hit Cal’s Tom Shileds in the mouth very early in the race, which is what he had to do to beat Shields, who is a great 200 butterflier as well. Shields came back on him hard, but he couldn’t overcome Staab’s early pace (though he almost pulled a Michael-Phelps-versus-Milorad-Cavic finish at the touch). Staab’s winning time, the 6th-fastest ever, was 44.69, and Shields was 2nd in 44.91. These two have won the last 3 NCAA titles in this event between them, and in a very short time became one of the best rivalries in the sport.
Though Staab didn’t get the win, his teammate Graeme Moore finished 4th in 45.71, which is a great swim for him. Michigan’s Dan Madwed split the group with a 3rd-place finish in 45.57. Cal’s Adrian, who was a little tired from a great medley anchor, was 8th, but still picked up big points just by being in that A-final.
Cal took a 37-point lead over Stanford and 42 point lead over Texas after this race. Nobody’s going to make up that many points, though Texas and Stanford could both get close after the 200 free.
7:58 PM- The 200 free is up next. Robison versus Hill should be a great battle, but give the edge to Robison’s comparatively huge experience. Both swimmers will represent Team USA this summer: Robison at the World Champs, and Hill at the World University Games.
7:59 PM- Arizona’s Nimrod Shapira Bar Or wins the B-final in 1:43.99. He was pushed hard at the end by Texas A&M’s Balazs Makany to his left, who finished 10th. That could be the Aggies’ only individual points on the meet, and they came from a huge swim by Makany. Tennessee’s Ryan Harrison, who had the fastest in-season time in this event, tied Makany for 10th.
200 freestyle
We don’t need to rub it in, but Florida is not having a great meet. A great finals performance from their 400 IM’ers, however, seems to have injected some life into the Gators, and especially Brett Fraser. His brother Shaune won this event in 2009, and Brett Fraser followed that legacy. He went out really fast, in 44.2, ahead of even the normally front-fast Dax Hill of Texas. His time of 1:32.91 puts him in the top 10 fastest 200 freestyles ever, and the Fraser brothers become the 2nd brothers ever to win the same NCAA event (after Seth and Martin Pepper in the 100 fly for Arizona in the mid-90’s).
Speaking of Dax Hill, this was a great piece of coaching by Eddie Reese. Seemingly for the first time this season (including prelims), he took the 200 free out at a slower pace. In fact, his front-half was nearly a second slower than it was this morning. But boy did he make up for it on the back half. He finished in 1:32.64, which cleared his career-best by 7-tenths. USC’s Clement Lefert finished 3rd in 1:33.17.
Virginia had their first real stumble of the meet when Scot Robison slipped all the way back to 5th. Matt McLean, however, made up some ground and placed in 4th place.
Cal had no scorers in this race, compared to 3 for Stanford and 2 for Texas, but they still managed to hold on to a double-digit lead.
8:12 PM- This meet is throwing curve-ball after curve-ball. I expect Damir Dugonjic to return this meet to predictability and stability in the 100 breaststroke.
8:13 PM- This B-final is going to be one of the best B-finals of the whole meet. Loaded field, thanks to a tight prelims that had the 6th-15th swimmers separated by under 2-tenths.
8:15 PM- Texas’ Friedland wins the B-final in a great 52.81. His teammate Scott Spann needs to have a great swim also in the A-final.
8:17 PM- Cal boys have a great shot at 1-2-3 in this race. I think Almeida from Louisville breaks them up.
100 breaststroke
Damir Dugonjic won his 3rd-straight NCAA Championship, and though he made it look easy, it was one of the best short course swims ever. His time of 50.94 is the second-best ever, and he remains the only swimmer in history under 51 seconds in this race. He was followed by teammate Nolan Koon in 51.63, which is the 4th-fastest swim ever in the 100 yard distance. Cal swimmers now hold 6 out of the 7 fastest times in this race ever.
A man who is quickly becoming one of my favorite swimmers, Carlos Almeida, is the only one who broke up the Cal domination at the top of this race. He swims for Louisville, which has a great breaststroke group, and took 3rd in an excellent time of 52.02, and also moves him into the top 10 on the all-time performers list. It was disappointing that the NCAA announcers didn’t mention his name once, even after he placed 3rd, but he definitely deserves recognition.
Cal cleaned up some more points thanks to a 4th-place finish by Martti Aljand in 52.47. Texas’ Scott Spann and Stanford’s Curtis Lovelace, who are chasing Cal in the team race, did their best to get in there, but could only tie for 5th in 52.97.
8:28 PM- Up next is the 100 back. This race is wiiiide open. Ress, Cragin, Chitwood, and even Shields could win this. Also watch Ress’ broken hand, which hasn’t affected him much so far in this meet.
8:29 PM- Georgia’s Matthew Bartlett won the B-final of the 100 backstroke in 46.90. This was well off of his prelims time, but still good enough for 9 big points. Cal’s Guy Barnea finished 2nd in 46.95, as the Bears continue to rake in points.
8:30 PM- Cragin will be out the fastest, but as he tires and his underwaters falter, the field will catch up on him. Ress is a 200 specialist, and so he needs to go out hard and hope he hangs on better than Cragin.
100 yard backstroke
Tom Shields had a lot of things working against him in this race. He was borrowing Guy Barnea’s goggles after his broke, he was coming off of the 100 fly a few events earlier, and it was a backstroke race, which is relatively a new event for him. He had a ton of excuses. But he didn’t let any of them affect him, and closed this race hard (half-a-second faster on the last 50) to win in 45.02, which ties him with Aaron Peirsol as 8th on the all-time list in this event. Can you say “dual threat”?
Indiana’s Eric Ress, who we have documented many times was swimming this race with a broken hand, did everything he needed to do. He had a solid lead on the first 50, which should have been a guarantee of victory for him as a 200 guy. Though he had enough endurance to hold off the rest of the field, he just couldn’t keep Shields off. He ended up touching 2nd in 45.14, which is just off of his career-best from Big Ten’s. Cole Cragin tried to “Dax” this swim and go out slow, whereas he’s usually out fast, but never was able to get back into it at the end. He finished 3rd in 45.56, which is a career-best mark for him as well.
Cal stretched their lead to just shy of 70 after this race, and at this point even a DQ’ed 800 free relay wouldn’t derail them. Cal’s in that “red zone” right now, where only a total choke-job could keep them from being National Champions.
8:42 PM- Divers are completing their warmups. The top 3 from yesterdays 1-meter, Purdue’s David Boudia, A&M’s Grant Nel, and Texas’ Drew Livingston, are all better on this than they are the lower board. That should equate to an awesome battle for the title.
8:58 PM- Boudia just put up 97 points on his 3rd dive. That’s a huge score! 100 is a perfect dive with a huge Degree of Difficulty. Doesn’t get a whole lot better than 97.
9:01 PM- David Boudia has a 25-point lead already, and he only gets stronger as the competition goes on. He could crush the National Record in this event if he continues to dive well. Duke’s Nick McCrory is holding on through a tough shoulder injury for 2nd with 236 points, and Texas A&M’s Grant Nel is 3rd with 229. This is at the midway point of the 3-meter.
9:06 PM- Boudia struggled on his 4th dive, and all of a sudden went from “in control” to “in contention”. Texas A&M’s Grant Nel is .5 points behind, and Duke’s McCrory is 6 points ahead.
9:16 PM- Nel and McCrory both miss a little on their 5th dives, allowing Boudia back into the lead. It’s now Arizona State’s Constantine Blaha that’s challenging him, at only 1.5 points back with 1 dive to go.
3-meter diving
David Boudia showed in this event why he’s a champion. He was challenged by 4 different divers in this event. Despite a 98.8 from Texas A&M’s Grant Nel on his last dive (the highest individual dive score of the meet), he still fought them all of with a clutch final dive to take the win with 472.30. Nel missed just barely in 471.35, which is equivalent to roughly one-half of a point from one judge on one dive. This was a huge diving battle that displayed the sport at it’s finest.
Arizona State’s Constantine Blaha and Duke’s Nick McCrory, who at different times challenged for this win, took 3rd and 4th in 450.40 and 431.00, respectively. Livingston, the only A-finalist with major team implications, placed 5th in 417.05.
9:29 PM- Looking ahead to the 800 free relay, this originally looked like Florida’s relay without a doubt. But now that they changed their lineup from SEC’s (which was best in the country by 3 seconds this year), and haven’t swum to expectations so far, Virginia suddenly becomes a serious contender in this relay. Michigan, who will be swimming out of the first heat because they have an optional entry, will also contend for the title. They will be far and ahead of the rest of the first heat swimmers, and should get some nice clean water to swim through.
9:31 PM- Texas has cut their lead over Cal to 54 points. Cal 324, Texas 270.5, Stanford 248.5, Arizona 192, Auburn 178.5, Florida 173, USC 114, Virginia 111, Michigan 105, Ohio State 85.
9:40 PM- Michigan wins heat 1 in the 800 free relay thanks to a great anchor swim from Ryan Feeley, who wasn’t on this relay at Big Ten’s. 6:22. Remember, this is a timed final event. Auburn DQ’ed their relay (just like the girls did), which would’ve been 5th in the heat.
800 free relay
It’s been said that a sign of a great leader is that when he falters, there are others there to pick him up. Conor Dwyer is the leader of the Florida Gators men’s swim team, and he’s been down throughout this meet with a nasty stomach virus, but his teammates definitely picked him up in this race. Dwyer led off in a 1:33.79 (about 2 seconds slower than what he’s capable of), but a front-loaded relay with 1:33-lows from individual champ Brett Fraser and Sebastian Rousseau gave anchor Jeffrey Raymond a significant lead which he turned home for a dominating win. Florida’s final time was 6:14.88.
Virginia had a great anchor from Scot Robison in 1:32.58, the fastest split of the day, but this was only enough to run down USC, Cal, and Stanford for 2nd-place overall in 6:16.59. This is the highest ever finish for a Virginia relay at NCAA’s. USC was 3rd in 6:17.58 (including a 1:33.12 leadoff from Clement Lefert that bested his individual time), and Stanford was 4th in 6:19.13.
In a brilliant stroke of event-management, Cal’s Dave Durden swapped Nathan Adrian onto the 200 medley (where he probably wasn’t needed all that badly) and off of this 800 free relay. But Cal’s relay didn’t miss a beat, and finished 5th in 6:20.54. Even without Adrian, this was an improvement of 3 seconds and 5 places over last year’s relay, which was identical on the other three legs. The difference this year was Tom Shields, who really showed his evolution as a total swimmer in this race. He led Cal off in 1:32.75, which was the best leadoff time, and second-best split overall, of the entire field. All of that came on the end of a grueling day of competition that included an individual title in the 100 back and a runner-up in the 100 fly. Freshman Sam Metz filled in admirably for Adrian, with the squad’s second-best split of 1:35.79. We knew Cal was good, but if they’re getting 5th in the 800 free relay without their best freestyler, they’re just unbelievable.
Last year’s champions Texas fell all the way back to 9th. Just like we saw at Big 12’s, Dax Hill showed some youth and inconsistency here in posting a 1:35.33 anchor after the Longhorns were well out of the battle. That drop could prove very significant in team scoring.
Overall Scoring
There’s not much to say about the leaders at this point. Cal is exactly who we thought they were, and actually (shockingly) picked up points over 2nd-place Texas on that final relay (which Texas has owned historically). With a lead at over 60 points, Cal won’t be caught on the final day of competition. Most of the Golden Bears probably are aware of this fact, but they will now have to focus hard to ensure that they continue to put up great individual performances on the final day of competition. This includes a record-watch for Tom Shields, who will vie to join Michael Phelps as the only two swimmers under 1:40. He posted a 1:40.31 at Pac-10’s which is the 3rd best swim ever.
Texas is holding off Stanford for 2nd, however, by a slim 10 points. Despite the poor finish, they actually extended their lead over the Cardinals on this second day of competition by a few points. The Longhorns have a lot of excitement to look forward to on the final day, including Jimmy Feigen in the 100 free and Scott Spann in the 200 breaststroke. They will also need diver Drew Livingston to dig down deep and excel on the platform, which he rocked at Big 12’s, to hold off the Cardinals. Stanford is seeded (including diving) to outscore Texas by just about 10 points on the last day, and with both teams swimming well, it’s going to be quite a battle.
With their 800 free relay win, the Florida Gators have crept back into the fight for a top-4 finish, and now sit only 1 point behind Arizona. The Wildcats aren’t having as great of a taper as they usually do, but are having some young swimmers step up big. Florida’s Conor Dwyer seems to be feeling better with every session (we found out tonight he’s battling a nasty stomach bug), and could still score some points in the 100 free. That would be very important for the Gators, as they and Arizona will also be neck-and-neck on the last day.
Team scoring, with the number in parenthesis being how much they’ve improved or lost off of seeding. We’ve pulled diving points out of that math.
1. California 352 (+51)
2. Texas 288.5 (+57)
3. Stanford 278.5 (+61.5)
4. Arizona 214 (+33)
5. Florida 213 (-62.5)
6. Auburn 178.5 (-16)
7. Southern Cali 146 (-1)
8. Virginia 145 (+53)
9. Michigan 131 (-12)
10. Ohio St 97 (-16)
What is wrong with Auburn? They went from dominance in both men’s and women’s for many years and the last couple of years have looked embarrassing. 6th in the men’s last year and again this year and 8th both years for the women?
And no attention to detail. As you pointed out, both the men’s and women’s team — already insignificant in the 800 free relay finishing 12th or 13th out of 16 in both cases… and they leave early???
And last year’s men’s 400 free relay lost out on a likely 2nd or 3rd place finish because of a false start.
I don’t see any of the other good teams showing so little focus.
To add insult to injury,… Read more »
What has Koon been long course? I think he could be in the mix for the 2012 US team.
Koon was a 1:02.3/2:19.2 long course last summer. He’s definitely no joke long course either.
I hate to say it, but its not over yet. Texas could final 2 each in the mile and platform, which would almost make up the difference. Surhoff will final in the back, Cal will be lucky to have any. They will be close in the free and breast, and Cal is much better in fly. It should come down to the relay.
It isn’t quite over yet, but it’s as over as it was in the women’s meet on day 2 (and maybe even moreso). A few slip-ups by Cal, and Texas could be back in it. At the same time, though, I don’t think it will be close enough. I see Cal being up by at least 30 at the relay, and there’s no way that Texas is going to beat them there, especially not by that much. Gydesen has a good shot at finaling in the 200 back, and Cal will do the same thing right back to Texas in the 200 fly, where the Longhorns will be lucky to have a B-finalist.
By seeds, Cal outscores Texas by 40+… Read more »
After that 51.6 I think Koon challenges for the 200. Almeida and Aljand certainly will be in the mix as well with the Texas guys.
should read Nolan of course
Great swims in the 400 IM and if Noland gets into this event it should be a ton of good swimmers fighting for the win. Too bad Dwyer is graduating.