2021 NCAA Men’s Day 4 Ups/Downs: Cal Goes 8/2, Texas Projected to Keep Lead

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 4 Prelims Recap

CURRENT TEAM SCORES (AFTER DAY THREE)

1. Texas 414
2. Cal 372
3. Florida 282
4. Georgia 198
5. Indiana 158
6. Louisville 150
7. Texas A&M 127
8. NC State 120
9. Ohio State 108
10. Virginia 102
11. Michigan 100
12. Mizzou 67
13. Arizona 66
14. Virginia Tech 60
15. Stanford 58
16. Alabama 53
17. LSU 52
18. Tennessee/Miami 38
19. (tie)
20. UNC/Purdue 31
21. (tie)
22. Georgia Tech 29
23. Florida State 24.5
24. Pittsburgh 23
25. Minnesota 20
26. Notre Dame/USC 15
27. (tie)
28. Penn State 13
29. Wisconsin 10
30. Kentucky 9
31. Utah 6.5

On Saturday morning, the Greensboro Aquatic Center had its last preliminaries session with the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, and 200 fly. At the conclusion of the session, the Cal Bears picked up 8 up and 2 down swims while the Texas Longhorns picked up 6 up and 4 down swims. Georgia had the next-best showing with 3 up and 3 down swims, followed by Virginia Tech and Florida picking up 2 A-finalists each. Cal is expected to reel in 135.5 points after their prelims showing while Texas is projected bring in 115 total points from the four events. However, Texas will still have a 22.50-point lead over Cal minus the 1650 free, platform diving, and the 400 free relay.

In the 200 back, freshman Destin Lasco broke the pool record at 1:37.19, leading a trio of Bears including #4 Bryce Mefford and #5 Daniel Carr. The Texas Longhorns will have #3 Carson Foster and #6 Austin Katz in the championship final along with #2 Shaine Casas of Texas A&M and #8 Clark Beach of Florida, who beat Virginia’s Justin Grender in a swim-off after tying at 1:40.20.

Ryan Hoffer of Cal will aim for his 3rd title here in Greensboro with his top 100 free seed alongside #4 Bjorn Seeliger. Texas will also have #2 Drew Kibler and #3 Daniel Krueger while Florida will have #6 Kieran Smith and Alabama’s Matt King snagged the 8th seed after getting DQ’ed in the 50 free.

Cal’s Reece Whitley picked up the top seed in the 200 breast over last night’s 100 breast champion Max McHugh of Minnesota. Texas’ Caspar Corbeau earned the third seed behind Stanford’s Daniel Roy while Whitley will be joined by Cal teammate Hugo Gonzalez in the championship final. Longhorn teammates Braden Vines and Jake Foster snagged the 9th and 10th seeds in the consolation final.

Finally, Louisville’s Nicolas Albiero holds the top 200 fly seed after taking second place in the 100 fly final yesterday. Behind him is Cal’s Trenton Julian, who SwimSwam picked to win the event over Albiero. Georgia’s Luca Urlando (#4) and Camden Murphy (#8) gave the Bulldogs two A-final swims while Texas’ Sam Pomajevich picked up the 5th seed over Big Ten champion Brendan Burns of Indiana (#6).

DAY 4 UPS/DOWNS

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

Not including: 1650 free, platform diving, 400 free relay

DAY 4 SCORED PRELIMS BREAKDOWN BY EVENT

SCORED DAY 4 PRELIMS

SCORED PRELIMS + CURRENT SCORES

Not including: platform diving, 400 free relay

Projected 1650 Free Points

The 1650 free timed finals are set to begin before the start of this evening’s finals session. Florida’s Bobby Finke comes in as the top seed and the American/U.S. Open/NCAA record holder. However, Georgia is expected to pick up 26 points in the event, six more than Florida if Finke wins.