3rd-Seeded Dean Farris Drops 100 Back For 50 Free At 2018 NCAAs

Holding the third-best time in the country this year, Harvard sophomore Dean Farris did not enter the 100 back, electing not to take on a brutal double with his top-seeded 200 free.

Farris tried that double last year as a freshman and struggled through the backstroke. Despite ‘cruising’ his 200 free as best he could (Farris came in with a seed of 1:31.56, and went 1:33.0 in prelims to take 7th), he still added a second and a half in his backstroke, falling from 45.3 to 46.9 and missing the final in 31st. That combo is especially brutal on the legs, with only heats of the 100 breaststroke in between.

This year, Farris is the top seed in the 200 free and will give up the backstroke to have just one event on Friday. Instead, he’s entered in the 50 free, alongside the 200 back, where he finished 14th last year.

Farris is a much longer shot to score in the 50, with his lifetime-best of 19.68 ranking him just 69th right now. (Many of those ahead of him will clear out, though, as only the top 28 or 29 swimmers in each event should earn invites based on our cut line analysis).

We will still likely see Farris swim a 100 backstroke as part of Harvard’s 400 medley relay on Thursday.

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snarky
6 years ago

17.98 Because he wants to.

swimmerTX
6 years ago

LETS GOOooOOOOoooOo00ooOO DEAN FARRISSSSSS

carlo
6 years ago

Damn dean farris looks massive in the water from that photo. His armspan looks huge.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  carlo
6 years ago

he is 6 foot 7 i heard …..like Biondi

YEAH BOIII
6 years ago

Disrespectful. Won’t even let Caeleb win the 50 his senior year. Taking his 50 tittle, his record and then his girl. Farris can do it all.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  YEAH BOIII
6 years ago

He’s gonna jump out the pool with all Dressel’s old tattoos, too.

Sane swim parent
Reply to  Steve Nolan
6 years ago

Swim swam needs a laugh reaction button.

Shhhhh!
6 years ago

Bowe Becker wins the 50

Bobbowmanforpresident
6 years ago

Dean’s going 17.98. You heard it here first.

Reid
6 years ago

50 free 200 free 200 back is up there as far as unsexy event lineups go. I also cringe whenever someone does both IMs and the 100 or 1650. Skipping the intermediate distance just looks wrong.

marklewis
6 years ago

The 200 free is his Baby. It’s going to be a titanic battle between Haas, Pieroni, Carter, and our Golden Boy Dean.

Dean swam in Lane 1 in the final last year. This year, he might be closer to the middle of the pool with his rivals.

Besides the Schooling-Dressel rematch in the 100 fly, the 200 free is going to be a Race to Watch.

Yabo
Reply to  marklewis
6 years ago

No Craig?

marklewis
Reply to  marklewis
6 years ago

Here’s last year’s race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i7oFvQG4ak

Dean is going to be much faster this year. That’s why the 200 free is going to be bonkers.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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