2018 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 21 – Saturday, March 24
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center – Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Defending champion: Texas (3x) (results)
- Psych Sheet
- Championship Central
100 FREESTYLE
- NCAA record: Caeleb Dressel (Florida), 2017, 40.00
- American record: Caeleb Dressel (Florida), 2017, 40.00
- U.S. Open record: Caeleb Dressel (Florida), 2017, 40.00
- 2017 NCAA Champion: Caeleb Dressel, 2017, 40.00
Caeleb Dressel (Photo: Thomas Campbell)
Last season, the crowd was on its feet as Florida’s Caeleb Dressel came as close as he could possibly get to becoming the first man ever to break 40 in the 100 yard freestyle. Dressel hit the wall in 40.00, dominating as he shaved nearly half a second off the American Record. Now a senior, Dressel has one last shot to break this barrier. He’s had some incredible performances this year, so nothing seems out of the question for him, and he seems unstoppable.
We have several returning finalists in this race in NC State’s Ryan Held, USC’s Dylan Carter and Santo Condorelli, Indiana’s Blake Pieroni, Texas’ Brett Ringgold, and Stanford’s Sam Perry. Of the returners, most of them don’t seem like they’ve shown all of their cards so far this year. Pieroni has been a best time this season, knocking a hundredth off his time at Big Tens.
We could see some new faces in the final this year. Texas’ Tate Jackson had a very strong Big 12s. He took down the conference record and dropped a full second and became the 9th fastest performer ever in the event. Teammate Townley Haas, the reigning 200 free champ, will look to make it in after winning the B final last season. He’s seemed to develop more speed over his career, and the 100 might be more central to his event focus now than it has been in years past. Cal has a strong sprint group and should get someone in between Justin Lynch, Ryan Hoffer, and Michael Jensen.
Auburn’s Zach Apple had big potential after his success during the long course season last summer. Apple has already dropped nearly a second from his best this season. He and teammate Peter Holoda are both top 8 seeds. NC State also has potential to get multiple men in the final. Aside from Held, they’ve also got Justin Ress, who, like Apple, had a great season last summer, and Jacob Molacek. Alabama’s Robert Howard is another guy who had a great summer season and could have a big breakthrough here. Minnesota’s Bowen Becker, the 5th seed, had a fantastic performance at Big Tens and is in the running for a finals spot as well.
TOP 8 PICKS:
| Place | Swimmer | Season Best | Lifetime Best |
| 1 | Caeleb Dressel (Florida) | 40.87 | 40.00 |
| 2 | Ryan Held (NC State) | 41.41 | 41.21 |
| 3 | Tate Jackson (Texas) | 41.27 | 41.27 |
| 4 | Zach Apple (Auburn) | 41.64 | 41.64 |
| 5 | Blake Pieroni (Indiana) | 41.43 | 41.43 |
| 6 | Brett Ringgold (Texas) | 41.89 | 41.61 |
| 7 | Ryan Hoffer (Cal) | 42.28 | 41.23 |
| 8 | Bowen Becker (Minnesota) | 41.61 | 41.61 |
i get that pieroni is a choker, but he’s so talented that he’s at least gonna get 3rd… him being a choker will only prevent him from being ~40.5 imo
I mean he made the olympic team, was on the evening 4×100 relay this past summer, and he dropped a 1:30 lead-off leg last year. I’m not sure where the choker label is coming from.
Incredible, everything you said was wrong.
how about referring to his 100 free from last year at ncaas where he got 8th and added from his not fully shaved/rested time from big tens?
No one but Dressel (and maybe Held and Pieroni) is a lock for the final… I’d say you really snubbed Condorelli, Ress and Haas, but it’s only an 8-lane pool. Who gets left out? (well, Bowen Becker hasn’t proved himself, IMO). And what about Carter and Howard? There’s about a dozen serious candidates for top 3.
I can see where some people wouldn’t put Becker in there. But last week we kinda underestimated Minnesota. I think he might have a little more in this race. It was just really hard to pick who to put in and who to leave out.
This race is seriously stacked, holy cow
I think Santo is a realistic pick for the top 3, nevermind the final…. Dropping a second from PAC to NCs is typical for him, and he has already been 41.9. There will probably be a huge pileup of guys 40.8-41.3 so it could shake out many ways but I think he is in the mix.
Why does everyone bring up dean Farris? Haha
I think it might just be like the ‘everyone hate on Schooling’ situation, somebody at some point has made a Farris comment and created a cult-ish ‘thing’ that refuses to die lol
exactly
This explains it perfectly!
Schooling brought that on himself with his:
“I hope Shields is watching me take down his record” – before losing to Dressel (who set the record)
“Gonna break the 100 fly world record” before not getting any where close and losing to 2 people who didn’t even swim the event the year before and tying with a guy who only swam relays
And “I did 50.7 in practice and it was monotonous” the day after Dressel did his 50.8
It’s a capital “D”.
Dressel breaks 40. Where can I place my bet?
In 2014 only 4 men total swam a 41 in the 100 free. At the big meet, only three went 41 in either prelims or finals. Now four season later, there might very well be 4 men who swim the morning 100 free under 42 seconds and don’t make it into the A-final.
Has the NCAA considered following the lead of some of the larger conferences and running a C final?
I think Dressel and Held are the only two that make it into A final for sure. After that it’s a free for all. Any name mentioned here has just as good a chance of beating anyone else.
I think Tate is pretty locked in to the A final
Yea but remember, the women’s race was separated by 0.57 for 1st through 8th, and 0.29 for 9th through 16th in the prelims. You add in the 0.33 between 8th and 9th place and that’s 16 swimmers separated by 1.19 seconds in the morning. If the men’s race is that tight, then all it takes is a bad morning swim and you’re out.