2017 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 22 – Saturday, March 25
- IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Texas (results)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Event Previews
- Live Results
Following day 1 finals at the 2017 Men’s NCAA Championships, the NC State Wolfpack leads the way after pulling off the upset in the 800 free relay. Ryan Held, Andreas Vazaios, Justin Ress, and Soeren Dahl successfully defeated defending champion Texas, taking down the NCAA and U.S. Open Record in the process with their 6:06.53. Held led off in a blistering best time of 1:31.37, while Dahl anchored in 1:30.67.
The Longhorns sit at #2 in the day 1 standings after Jack Conger, Jeff Newkirk, Clark Smith, and Townley Haas set a new American Record time in 6:08.61. Haas put up a 1:30.42 on the anchor leg, marking the fastest 800 free relay split of all time. That was a tenth faster than his 1:30.52 split from last season.
Several teams broke school records to earn their place in the standings, including Florida (#3), Cal (#4), Stanford (#7), Auburn (#12), and Harvard (#14).
TEAM SCORES THROUGH DAY 1:
1. NC State 40 2. Texas 34 3. Florida 32 4. California 30 5. Southern Cali 28 6. Univ of Georgia 26 7. Stanford 24 8. Louisville 22 9. Indiana 18 10. Wisconsin 14 11. Michigan 12 12. Auburn 10 13. South Carolina 8 14. Harvard 6 15. Arizona State 4 16. Missouri 2
Very Impressive; however one relay makes not a championship. Sit back and let the individual swims and dives decide each teams fate!
Yes, but breaking an NCAA record by almost 2 seconds on the first night holds more value than the winning “one relay”…
Congrats NC State. Here are last year’s relay times, this year’s times, way too early analysis that we can try to squeeze out of the first event of the meet, and how tonight’s results may change expectations for the team race heading into the first full day of swimming tomorrow:
Team
2016(place) 2017(place)(2017 entry time)
[analysis and way too early expectations based on the 800fr]
NC St
6:09.58(2nd) 6:06.53(1st)(6:09.82)
Bilis 1:32.02 Held 1:31.37
Held 1:32.06 Vazaios 1:32.23
Ress 1:33.64 Ress 1:32.26
Dahl 1:31.86 Dahl 1:30.67
[Held -0.69, Ress -1.38, Dahl -1.19. Relay -3.29 total from last year. Held was also about -1.40 than ACCs, Vazaios about -1.10, Ress +0.20, and Dahl -1.00.… Read more »
That was an awesome analysis! Really informative and interesting. Thanks!
Not putting Schooling in is going to pay off for Texas. Brilliant decision for Reese to not put him in.
Held with that 1:31.37 and he’s not even swimming the 200…. Just off the crazy Burnett and Berens times.
Points wise Texas had the biggest jump up from their seeding. NC State stayed where they were seeded and Cal moved down a spot.
Plus, Horns will have a net gain by not swimming Schooling in the relay. Relay might have scored 40 with Schooling, but he will score more than 6 points in the 50. If he swims to his seed, Horns will
score 50 instead of 40, +10 gained. Horn divers will decide this thing, imho.
As a total newbie, can someone please help me to understand. It seems like today’s relay is just one of many races, with most of the remaining races having Texas or Cal swimmers favored to win per the SwimSwam predictions. Yet in the comments on the first day recap, it seemed as though many thought that due to today’s relay performance, that NC State may have a chance to win overall.
It seems from the predictions Texas and Cal would still be the favorites, or am I missing something around correlation for early team performance with overall meet performance?
NC State has recently come into the NCAAs seeded high, but does not perform well. With these performances, it may indicate that NC State is bringing it this time and could challenge Texas.
NCstate had a good 200 last year they got second, people are just amazed Texas lost its Texas’s own fault for not going with last years line up
You can never discount the power of momentum. Just ask the Georgia ladies from last year’s NCAAs.
GO PACK!!