2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Championships: Day 2 Relay Analysis

2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 23-26, 2022
• McAuley Aquatic Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia (Eastern Daylight Time)
• Prelims 10AM /Finals 6PM
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Live Results
• Championship Central
• Official Psych Sheets
• Thursday night finals heat sheet

Day 2 Standings

1. Texas – 180
2. Florida – 159
3. California – 158
4. NC State – 124
5. Arizona St – 111
6. Georgia – 100
7. Stanford – 94
8. Indiana – 78
9. Virginia – 70.5
10. Virginia Tech – 69
11. Ohio St – 56
12. Arizona – 48
13. Louisville – 46
14. (tie) Alabama / Harvard – 41
15. –
16. LSU – 36
17. Michigan – 24
18. Texas A&M – 20
19. Tennessee – 17.5
20. Purdue – 16
21. Columbia – 15
22. UNC – 11
23. Auburn – 8
24. Princeton – 5
25. (tie) Minnesota / SMU – 4
26. –
27. Utah – 2
28. Georgia Tech – 1

Florida, the team known for its distance prowess, has now won both sprint relays. After a victory in the 200 medley relay on Wednesday night, the Gators defied expectations and won the 200 free relay in 1:14.11 on Thursday. Florida, who had zero A-finalists in the 50 free individual event tonight, put together a quartet that included the fourth-fastest leadoff (Adam Chaney, 18.85) and three of the 13 best rolling splits: Will Davis (#3 with 18.28), Eric Friese (#4 with 18.39), and Kieran Smith (#13 with 18.59). Earlier in the evening, Chaney had won the B final in the 50 free with 18.75; Davis had placed 11th overall with 18.99. The Gators dropped 1.07 seconds from their seed time to move from fourth to first.

Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger swam the fastest leadoff leg by .45. He had led the qualifiers out of heats in this morning’s 50 free individual event with 18.45 before going 18.59 in the final to place second behind LSU’s Brooks Curry by .03. His leadoff 50 in the relay would have won the individual event by .36.

Also in the last heat with Florida and Cal, swimming in lane 1, was Texas, whose Drew Kibler led off in the third-fastest time of 18.83. He went 18.87 in the individual final to come in sixth.

Jordan Crooks of Tennessee had the second-fastest leadoff with 18.72 –just off his third-place finish in the 50 final (18.60)– in the penultimate heat eventually won by Harvard.

Virginia entered the meet with the fastest seed time, a 1:14.47 from the 2022 ACC Championships that broke the American record. The top three times in tonight’s final came in under that time. UVA got a 18.94 leadoff from Matt Brownstead, but added .2 overall to finish fifth with 1:14.70.

Five swimmers led off with sub-19s (Seeliger, Crooks, Kibler, Chaney, and Brownstead) and another 36 swimmers put up sub-19s on their rolling splits. Of those, NC State’s Nyls Korstanje led the pack with 18.04. He is now the fourth-best performer ever on a roll. Cameron Auchinachie went 18.14 to anchor the Texas relay. Arizona State’s Leon Marchand was 18.41 as the Sun Devils’ third leg, and Grant House went 18.47 on their second leg. Other sub-18.5s include Matt King of Virginia (18.42) and Harvard’s Dean Farris (18.49).