2015 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, March 26 – Saturday, March 28
- University of Iowa, Iowa City
- Prelims 11AM/Finals 7PM (Central Time)
- Defending Champion: California – results
- Iowa Championship Central / NCAA Championship Central
- Prelims (& Thursday finals) Live feed: Hawkeye Sports / Finals Live feed: ESPN3 (Friday & Saturday)
- PSA: What to do when live results aren’t updating
- Live results
SEC FINAL TEAM SCORES
- 5. Florida (248)
- 7. Georgia (208)
- 9. Auburn (182)
- 10. Alabama (176)
- 11. Missouri (132)
- 14. Tennessee (111)
- 19 South Carolina (51)
Tons of history was made tonight in Iowa City at the 2015 Men’s Divison 1 NCAA Championships, and a little piece of it came in the 100 freestyle final as Kristian Gkolomeev became the first 100 free champion in the 100 free from Alabama since 1975.
Alabama sophomore Gkolomeev was seeded second going into the 100 freestyle final after swimming a 42.23 in the heats. When finals approached he climbed lane five beside NC State’s Simonas Bilis.
At the start, Gkolomeev was off the blocks quick and turned way ahead of the rest of the pack at the 50. He was a 19.60 on his feet at the 50, leading the field by four tenths of a second.
Bilis of NC State started closing in on him on that last 50, but it was still all Gkolomeev as he approached the wall. At the wall he was the undeniable winner with a swift time of 41.56 to take down Bilis’ 41.78. Third was Cristian Quintero of USC with a 42.18.
As soon as Gkolomeev’s hand touched that wall, he solidified in history that he was only the second Alabama swimmer to ever win the 100 freestyle. The only other swimmer to have done that before was Jonty Skinner at the 1975 NCAA Championships.
The amazing fact is that history always has a funny way of repeating itself, and in a timely fashion, it did at these championships. Skinner actually joined the Alabama coaching staff in the summer of 2012, just one season before Gkolomeev joined the team.
As the associate head coach, Skinner worked with Gkolomeev all last year and this year. Amazingly, the two worked together, and now the two are the only Alabama swimmers to have ever won an NCAA title in the 100 freestyle.
Other notable SEC performances
- After missing out on the championship finals of the 200 and 500 freestyles, Georgia’s Matias Koski all but made up for it with an NCAA title in the 1650. Koski played a smart race, turning in second or third for the majority until the end where he turned on the jets and passed Michigan freshman PJ Ransford to take the gold for the dawgs. Koski’s winning time was a 14:32.38
- Sean Lehane of Tennessee managed to get on the podium today in the 2900 backstroke with a solid time of 1:39.20. He was second overall behind Cal’s Ryan Murphy who broke the American record in finals with a time of 1:36.77.
Photos From Day 3
