2021 NCAA Men’s Day 3 Ups/Downs: Texas Earns 10 A-Final Swims, Four in the IM

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

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.

Day 3 Prelims Recap

The Texas Longhorns carried over their evening momentum from last night after earning a 1-2 finish on the 1-meter diving board and winning the 400 medley relay. Entering this morning’s prelims, the Longhorns set up a dominant night with 14 returning swims, 10 up and 4 down. Cal (6/2), Georgia (4/2), and Florida (4/1) were all not even close to matching Texas’ depth in the pool.

With the evening Texas set up, the Longhorns will score in all five individual events, including more than 55 projected points in two events (400 IM/200 FR). Meanwhile, Cal won’t score more than 40 points in a single event. In total, the Longhorns are expected to pick up 170 points in the pool before 3-meter diving and the 200 medley relay. Cal has the second-most with 104 points, which can result in a 39-point deficit to Texas after leading the first two days.

In the 400 IM, Texas earned top seed Carson Foster (3:37.79), #4 Jake Foster, #5 Braden Vines, and #8 David Johnston into the championship final, a projected 60-point pick-up. In contrast, Cal senior Sean Grieshop picked up the #2 seed while teammate Hugo Gonzalez placed 10th overall, missing the A-final (22-32 points). Florida’s Bobby Finke will also contend in the A-final with his #3 prelims seed.

Into the 100 fly, top seed Ryan Hoffer is Cal’s only scoring swimmer in the event while #5 Alvin Jiang and #11 Sam Pomajevich are the two scoring flyers for Texas. The Georgia Bulldogs reeled in #3 Camden Murphy and #8 Luca Urlando in the A-final, a projected 27-point snag.

Texas’ other big event was the 200 free, qualifying Drew Kibler as the top seed followed by #4 Peter Larson and #8 Jake Sannem. Larson was not a member of the winning 800 free relay, which consisted of Kibler, Austin Katz, C. Foster, and Sannem. His 1:32.53 split from this morning would have improved the Longhorns’ relay to 6:06.81 if he replaced Katz’s 1:33.02 split. In for Cal as the 3rd seed is senior Trenton Julian while junior Kieran Smith picked up another top-3 seed for Florida.

In the 100 breast, Minnesota junior Max McHugh will be aiming for his first NCAA title after placing third as a freshman in 2019. In the championship final, McHugh will be joined by #3 Dillon Hillis of Florida, #4 Reece Whitley of Cal, #5 Zane Backes of Indiana, and #7 Caspar Corbeau of Texas.

After winning Texas A&M’s first individual NCAA title in program history, junior Shaine Casas will aim for a second title in the 100 back. Cal freshman Destin Lasco continues his breakout meet with his #2 prelims seed in this event along with teammate #8 Bryce Mefford. Placing 16th this morning was Cal senior Daniel Carr, who placed 7th in the 2019 final after hitting 44.86 in a re-swim following a starting wedge malfunction. If Carr can at least drop from 45.53 (this AM) to a 45.21 (his 2019 finals time), that would give the Bears’ an extra 7 points in the event. Texas will have #7 Jiang again in the water while Indiana sophomore Brendan Burns picked up the 5th seed.

CURRENT SCORES (THROUGH DAY TWO)

1. Cal 230
2. Texas 203
3. Florida 161
4. Georgia 116
5. Texas A&M 88
6. NC State 87
7. Indiana 84
8. Louisville 64
9. Michigan 63
10. Virginia 56
11. Arizona 51
12. Stanford/Mizzou 42
13. (tie)
14. Virginia Tech 39
15. Alabama 38
16. Ohio State/Purdue 28
17. (tie)
18. LSU 23
19. Miami 19
20. Florida State 18.5
21. Georgia Tech 14
22. Pittsburgh 12
23. Kentucky/Notre Dame 9
24. (tie)
25. Penn State 8
26. Tennessee 6
27. Wisconsin 5
28. UNC 4
29. Utah 2.5

DAY 3 UPS/DOWNS

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

Not including: 3-meter diving, 200 medley relay

DAY 3 SCORED PRELIMS BREAKDOWN BY EVENT

SCORED Day 3 PRELIMS

SCORED PRELIMS + CURRENT SCORES

Not including: 3-meter diving, 200 medley relay