2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
Texas won the 800 free relay last night, with Cal second and the rest of the field over two seconds behind the Bears.
This morning, the team race will start to take shape, with prelims of the 500 free, 200 IM and 50 free set to run. Kieran Smith of Florida will meet challengers like Jake Magahey of Georgia and Drew Kibler of Texas in the 500 free, while the field will try to get as close to Texas A&M’s Shaine Casas as possible in the 200 IM and try to pick off a spot in the A-final.
The 50 free is one of the most competitive events this week, with seven men already under 19 seconds this year, including freshman leader Adam Chaney of Florida. Keep an eye on the other first-year talents, like Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger, Virginia’s Matt Brownstead and Alabama’s Matt King in this race, as they’ve all been 18-high this season. The upstart rookies will try to take down Cal senior Ryan Hoffer, a seasoned competitor and defending 50 free champion.
500 FREE – PRELIMS
- NCAA Record: 4:06.32, Kieran Smith (Florida) – 2020
- American Record: 4:06.32, Kieran Smith (Florida) – 2020
- U.S. Open Record: 4:06.32, Kieran Smith (Florida) – 2020
- Meet Record: 4:08.19, Townley Haas (Texas) – 2019
- 2019 Champion: Townley Haas (Texas), 4:08.19
- 2020 Top Performer: Kieran Smith (Florida), 4:06.32
Top 8
- Jake Magahey (Georgia) – 4:09.36
- Brooks Fail (Arizona) – 4:09.41
- Kieran Smith (Florida) – 4:11.03
- Sean Grieshop (Cal) – 4:11.12
- Drew Kibler (Texas) – 4:11.52
- Trenton Julian (Cal) – 4:11.60
- Ross Dant (NC State) – 4:12.34
- Bobby Finke (Florida) – 4:12.37
In the final heat, Kieran Smith of Florida and Trenton Julian separated from the field, and they went 1-2 here. Smith put on the jets in the final 50, going 4:11.03 with Julian second at 4:11.60, both getting into the A-final.
Arizona’s Brooks Fail and Texas’s Alex Zettle led through the halfway point of heat five, but Georgia’s Jake Magahey pulled up as Zettle faded. Magahey passed Fail down the final stretch, both breaking 4:10 at 4:09.36 to 4:09.41. That’s a best time for Fail, and his first time under 4:10.
Drew Kibler of Texas was out hard (but looked smooth), going 1:36.5 over the first 200 with NC State’s Ross Dant in tow. Kibler fell off of a very fast pace, finishing at 4:11.52 ahead of Dant (4:12.34) and Stanford senior Grant Shoults (4:12.85).
In heat five, Cal’s Sean Grieshop got things moving, posting a 4:11.12 to come just .01 off of what he went in 2019 prelims at this meet. Texas’s JT Larson (4:13.40) and Peter Larson (4:14.58) went 2-3 in that heat.
Navy senior Luke Johnson won heat two in 4:19.48, the first sub-4:20 of the morning. In heat one, swimming solo due to no-shows, Michigan’s Danny Berlitz went 4:20.05.
Cal gets two up into the A-final here and one into the B, while Texas does the inverse of that, with one into the A and two into the B. Florida actually did the best here with 2 up and 2 down.
200 IM – PRELIMS
- NCAA Record: 1:38.13, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- American Record: 1:38.13, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- U.S. Open Record: 1:38.13, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- Meet Record: 1:38.14, Andrew Seliskar (Cal) – 2019
- 2019 Champion: Andrew Seliskar (Cal), 1:38.14
- 2020 Top Performer: Shaine Casas (Texas A&M), 1:39.91
Top 8
- Destin Lasco (Cal) – 1:40.61
- Shaine Casas (Texas A&M) – 1:40.74
- Hugo Gonzalez (Cal) – 1:40.94
- Carson Foster (Texas)/Caio Pumputis (Georgia Tech) – 1:41.34 *TIE*
- –
- Javier Acevedo (Georgia) – 1:41.72
- Danny Kovac (Mizzou)/David Schlicht (Arizona) – 1:42.21 *TIE*
Texas A&M’s Shaine Casas took the final heat in 1:40.74, able to hld off Texas freshman Carson Foster (1:41.34) and Caio Pumputis of Georgia Tech (1:41.34) as they tied for second.
In heat seven, Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez broke 1:41 with a 1:40.94 to take the #2 spot at the time.
Javier Acevedo of Georgia put down a 1:41.72 to claim heat six ahead of Mizzou’s Danny Kovac (1:42.21). Later on, Arizona’s David Schlicht would tie with Kovac, and they’d get into the A-final tied at seventh.
Purdue’s Nick Sherman went 1:43.43 to claim heat five.
Caspar Corbeau clocked a 1:42.73 to win heat four for Texas, almost two seconds faster than his old best. He and Reece Whitley of Cal went 1-2 there, Whitley at 1:43.07 as they both split 28s on the breast leg.
Out of heat two, Cal freshman Destin Lasco obliterated his old best by five seconds, hitting a 1:40.61. He moves into the top 20 all-time, just .03 behind Michael Phelps in this event.
Cal again leads with two A-finalists here, and they also got three into the B. Texas had one A-finalist and three B-finalists.
50 FREE – PRELIMS
- NCAA Record: 17.63, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- American Record: 17.63, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- U.S. Open Record: 17.63, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- Meet Record: 17.63, Caeleb Dressel (Florida) – 2018
- 2019 Champion: Ryan Hoffer (Cal), 18.63
- 2020 Top Performer: Ryan Hoffer (Cal), 18.87
Top 8
- Ryan Hoffer (Cal) – 18.43
- Dillon Downing (Georgia) – 18.88
- Bjorn Seeliger (Cal) – 18.91
- Adam Chaney (Florida) – 18.98
- Youssef Ramadan (Virginia Tech) – 19.08
- Gus Borges (Michigan) – 19.12
- Daniel Krueger (Texas) – 19.13
- Blaise Vera (Pitt) – 19.17
Cal’s Ryan Hoffer had the swim of his life in heat six, jetting to the lead early and dropping the hammer with an 18.43. Hoffer breaks the pool record, and he becomes the fastest man ever not named Caeleb Dressel, his time good enough to make him the #2 performer in history.
Hoffer moves ahead of Cesar Cielo’s previously #2 time of 18.47.
Freshmen Bjorn Seeliger (Cal), Adam Chaney (Florida) and Youssef Ramadan (Virginia Tech) made it into the A-final here, all behind Georgia sophomore Dillon Downing‘s UGA record of 18.88. Ramadan also set a VT school record.
One freshman who was expected to contend in the A-final, Alabama’s Matt King, was DQ’d for a false start.
Michigan’s Gus Borges was only a B-finalist in 2019, and he gets into the A-final tonight with his 19.12, while Pitt’s Blaise Vera was 19.17 to squeak into the A-final after finishing 25th in 2019.
Utah’s Cooper DeRyk posted a 19.37 for the heat three win, the first 19-low of the morning. He makes it into the B-final here.
Cal again had two A-finalists here, while Florida and Michigan each got 1/1.
Jordan Windle and Connor Casey had an absolutely incredible dual for the top spot in prelims, gonna be fantastic tonight! Also mad props to Capobianco for clawing back up to (what right now appears to be) a top 8 spot.
EDIT: wow I didn’t even notice that Hernandez and Duperre hadn’t even dove yet.
Jordan Windle got some ‘friendly scoring’ on at least one dive in prelims. We’ll see if that holds up in finals.
Cal may score more points tonight with no divers, and I am Texas fan 🙁
I want to see a “peak 2014” Manaudou in the 50 free yards.
If he was optimized for yards I’d give him a 17.9 or 18.0
Agreed – I’d rather see Whitley improve at breast than IM, but fly and free look awkward af.
Florida 3up/4down, nice improvements by Hillis and Friese, Dgroup did WORK. It’s going to be a good meet for the Gators.
What happened to True Sweetser? 4:12 as a freshman and now barely under 4:20?!?! He was an Olympic hopeful as an underclassman
True dat.
he may have over-trained or Katie Ledecky broke him? 🙁
this SS video (May 2018) really stood out in my memory. Besides being amazed at what Ledecky can do, it was also how tough to find training partner for her AND how hard it is for her training partner (mentally)
https://youtu.be/Go_5eROAiRg?t=450
and True’s conversation with the coaches at the end of the video – https://youtu.be/Go_5eROAiRg?t=679
May 2018 would have been after his freshman year?
And mark theall made the A final in 2019 and was way off this morning
From the women’s meet, I know Stanford’s swimmers had to endure pretty onerous COVID quarantining requirements since they were in Santa Clara county. Apart from a couple of good performances, the Stanford women were down as a whole. I would not be surprised to see the same thing with the men’s team.
Also based on the women’s meet, the pandemic-related interruptions in training this past year seem to have disproportionately affected the distance events.
There may be something going on with him individually but I do not know and am not going to speculate.
As a Cal fan, I take no pleasure in any Stanford swimmer having an off-season. You want your rival to be in top… Read more »
Hoff the hammer. Nice 50. Can’t wait to see what he does the rest of this weekend. Mind you, as a Longhorn, I still want Texas to win. As someone who was affiliated with Scottsdale Aquatic Club for a long time, though, I always love seeing Ryan crush it.
Nobody hassles the Hoff.
Where can I watch finals tonight???
Espn3. I think you can get a slingTV free trial that includes it
ESPN3. Check out the links at the top of the page on the right (white type on red highlight). Your cable package has to include ESPN. At least, that’s how I think it works.
Diving is on now.
Guide to the dive codes:
https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Diving/About-Us/Diving-101/Identifying-Dive-Numbers