As reported by SwimSwam’s Jared Anderson. Video edited by Coleman Hodges.
Second in this event last year, Marcin Cieslak came up big for the Florida Gators in 2014, winning the 100 fly in 44.87. That’s the second-straight event where the Gators have looked great, a good sign for their title hopes, which have been overshadowed so far by Cal and Texas.
Florida State senior Pavel Sankovich had one of the best swims of what’s been an outstanding senior season for him, going 45.00 to take second place and keep the top two spots within the Sunshine State. Both Sankovich and Cieslak had to back-half their races some, as they sat 4th and 5th at the 50 turn.
The entire top 4 was made up of seniors, as Ohio State’s Tim Phillips dropped almost a tenth from his top seed to take third in 45.10 and Arizona’s Giles Smith followed at 45.43.
Despite Florida’s win, Texas got the biggest points boost out of this event, going 5-6-7 in the championship final. Tripp Cooper went 45.46 to head that group. Freshman Jack Conger, seemingly a fan-favorite pick to win among our comments section, wound up 6th at 45.61, just a bit off his prelims swim. Fellow freshman Will Glass rounded out that crew at 45.98.
Georgia senior Doug Reynolds went 46.31 to take home 8th place.
Arizona sophomore Andrew Porter took home the B final, going 45.50 and working the underwaters to top Cal’s Marcin Tarczynski.
