2019 M. NCAA Previews: Wide Open Race Behind Haas, Auboeck in 500

2019 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 27 – Saturday, March 30
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, Texas
• Defending champion: Texas (4x) (2018 results)
• Psych Sheet
• Championship Central
• Live results

Last year’s top eight finishers in this event graduated three seniors in NC State’s Anton Ipsen, South Carolina’s Akaram Mahmoud, and Stanford’s Liam Egan, and the field this year also lacks Stanford 2018 No. 4 finisher junior Grant Shoults, who underwent shoulder surgery midway through the season.

On top of that, Texas sophomore Sam Pomajevich, eighth last year, went 4:16 in November, and has otherwise has not been under 4:22 in the 2018-2019 season. That leaves Texas senior Townley Haas, Michigan junior Felix Auboeck and sophomore teammate Ricardo Vargas Jacobo as our official picks to repeat as A finalists.

Haas is one of two swimmers in the field to have broken 4:09, but he’s also one of seven performers in history to do so – and he’s done it twice (and nearly thrice, with a 4:09.00). On top of that, his three best times are from the 2018, 2017, and 2016 NCAA Championships, so he knows how to go fast when it counts. In the 2016-2017 season, Haas was 4:14.36 in November at the Texas Invite, 4:12.90 at Big 12s, then 4:08.92 at NCAAs; in the 2017-2018 season he was 4:14.43 in November, 4:16.00 at Big 12s, and went 4:08.60 at NCAAs; this year he was 4:20.57 in November and 4:13.35 at Big 12s. His early season workload hasn’t played out consistently over the past two sub-4:09 seasons – but one thing is almost for certain in his fourth NCAA appearance: Haas is going to go fast. 

Michigan’s Felix Auboeck. (photo: Tim Binning)

The other swimmer to have broken 4:09 is the Michigan junior Auboeck, the top seed coming into the meet with a 4:09.37 from Big Tens last month. Like Haas, Auboeck’s best times have both come at NCAAs, but unlike Haas, he hasn’t posted consistent drops: he was 4:08.95 in 2017 and 4:09.03 last year. Those times are extremely close, of course, but Auboeck hasn’t really given us reason to think he’ll go 4:08-low (or perhaps better), as Haas has.

South Carolina senior Fynn Minuth is the field’s final swimmer to have broken 4:11 in his lifetime – he was 4:09.55 at NCAAs in 2017. But since then, he’s been rather inconsistent. Minuth was 4:10.51 at 2018 SECs, then 4:13.94 at 2018 NCAAs. At the Georgia Tech Invite in November, he was 4:19.44 (he was also 4:19 in 2016, and 4:16.07 there in 2017), and 4:11.98 at SECs last month. But his lifetime best margin over the rest of the field keeps him a podium threat.

Michigan’s Ricardo Vargas , Arizona’s Brooks Fail, and Louisville’s Marcelo Acosta are the final entrants who have been under 4:12 in their careers. Vargas leads that pack in both 2018-2019 season- and lifetime-best time. He took eighth last year in 4:12.87 after going 4:11.11 at Big Tens, and was 4:11.72 at Big Tens this year. Fail went two lifetimes bests at the Texas Invite last November, dropping three seconds on the day for a 4:11.84. He was back up at 4:14.82 at Pac-12s, but was likely unrested as the mid-season swim was more than enough to qualify for NCAAs.

Acosta was ninth last year at NCAAs, but his 4:11.61 actually ranked fifth overall. He had been 4:13.70 at ACCs before swimming that time, and was 4:14.94 there this year.

Trey Freeman (photo: Jack Spitser)

Michigan freshman Patrick Callan (listed in entries as “Kevin”) dropped a little over a second off his lifetime best to go 4:12.56 at the Georgia Invite at the end of November – a solid time on its own. But more importantly, he was able to repeat (and improve ever-so-slightly) at Big Tens last month, going 4:12.53. As long as his taper holds up, even just matching his PR should be good enough for the A-final.

Florida freshman Trey Freeman, a top recruit out of the high school class of 2018, is the No. 9 seeded swimmer this season and our pick to round out the A-final. Yes, he just dropped three seconds at SECs, but he hit 4:15s and 4:16s for 2 years of tapered swims before that drop. Following the breakthrough last month, he looks good to hit 4:12-points at the new norm.

Cal sophomore Sean Grieshop and Georgia junior Walker Higgins were also both 4:12-point this season or last, and could make a play for a top eight spot. Grieshop was 4:14.44 at 2018 Pac-12s before going 4:12.94 as NCAAs; he was right on that time at the conference this year. Higgins dropped from 4:14.43 to 4:12.36 at SECs last month after two years without a best time, and could repeat in that range again.

Additionally, if the aforementioned Longhorn Pomajevich was simply worn to pieces during the season and is going to have the taper of his life, his PR sits at 4:12.46, which would be 0bviously competitive.

NC State’s Eric Knowles has a high seed and does follow in the footsteps of Ipsen, last year’s bronze medalist. He’ll have to match his seed in prelims to make the A final. Virgina’s Brendan Casey is the eighth seed, but it’s worth wondering if the open water standout is saving his best stuff for a pretty important Open Water Nationals later this spring. Notre Dame’s Zach Yeadon was 10th last year as a freshman and has had a good season – he might be a little more primed for NCAAs than ACCs this year.

Dark horse: Stanford junior True Sweetser looked at one point like the “next big thing” in distance swimming, but since his standout freshman-year Pac-12 performance, he hasn’t lived up to the hype in the short course yards. After that multi-medal Pac-12s, he added multiple seconds in both his 500 and 1650 at NCAAs, missing the top eight in both. As a sophomore, he missed finals altogether in the 500, going 4:16.38. He’s already been faster than that this season, however, going 4:15.21 at the Texas Invite. If somehow his taper finally hits right in year three and he nears his PR of 4:12.97, Sweetser could have a shot at the A-final.