Ohio State Men’s Last Chance Meet
- March 4th, 2018
- McCorkle Aquatic Pavillion, Columbus, Ohio – Ohio State University
- SCY (25y) course
- Meet Results on Meet Mobile: “2018 Last Chance Qualifier-Men” (or search “Columbus”)
What better place to rack-up a last-minute qualification for the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships than at the pool that will host the upcoming (women’s) NCAA Championships: Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavillion. With women’s invites already out, this was a men’s-only meet, where swimmers made a last-ditch effort to earn a spot at the men’s NCAA Championship in Minneapolis from March 21st-24th.
The Virginia Tech men started off the day by coming excruciatingly-close to a qualifying standard in the 200 free relay, swimming a 1:17.70 in the prelims session that is just .08 from the invite-standard. The team cruised through finals in a 1:23, meaning that they didn’t earn a relay invite (though they have the fastest non-qualifying-standard relay in both the 200 and 800 distances).
The Hokies otherwise had a successful day, though. Freshman Lane Stone swam a 4:14.73 in the 500 free, which ranks him 16th nationally and will put him easily into the meet. That makes him now the 3rd likely qualifier for the Hokies. If they had managed a 4th, they could’ve still entered relays via a backdoor that allows teams to swim Provisional Standard relays if they have 4 individual swimmers qualify.
The other swimmer to shore-up his NCAA qualifying on Sunday was Henrique Painhas of the hosts Ohio State. He swam a 1:42.47 in the 200 fly. That improves upon his 1:42.75 from Big Tens, which had him on-the-verge with a 31st-place national ranking. After his last chance swim, though, he ranks 26th, which is likely in to the meet.
Near Misses from Sunday:
- Ohio State senior Brayden Seal, who qualified to swim at NCAAs last year individually and was an alternate in 2016, sits 31st after his 4:16.19 in the 500 free on Sunday. He was on Ohio State’s 800 free relay at NCAAs last season, though this year he didn’t make the relay that swam at Big Tens to rank 11th in the nation and qualify for NCAAs.
- Louisville freshman Nikkos Sofiandis was able to improve his chances ever-so-slightly in the 200 back, improving his seed from 1:41.86 to 1:41.57. That still only ranks him 37th nationally, however, and is unlikely to qualify for NCAAs.
- Louisville freshman T.C. Smith swam a 14:53.60 in the men’s 1650 free, which ranks him 30th nationally in the event. There are no obvious scratches ahead of him, and while 30th has a chance at an invite, 30th doesn’t typically earn one.
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I AM ULTRALORD!!!!!!!!!
Braden – can VT put in their relays if they qualify a diver as their fourth entrant? No idea if they are close to doing so though.
joe – no, they can’t. The diver counts as an “athlete” for the part of the rule where you need an individual qualifier to go with a “Qualifying Swim” (aka “A” cut) relay to earn a spot, but divers are explicitly excluded from the 4 for the “no QS relay” part of the rules.
Virginia Tech diving isn’t as strong as it has been in the past, but diving qualifications have drastically expanded like swimming, and so they’ll probably send at least 1 diver to the meet. TJ Shinholser was 5th at ACCs on platform, for example.
Lol he is wearing my Barracuda goggles from 1988
I just have to say… these newfangled goggles look absolutely ridiculous!
And not in a good way?
Who cares how they look if they work well. What looks horrible are those suction marks around all the swimmers eyes from the current googles. Maybe these new googles will be more comfortable and reduce that.
Lane has worn those goggles for a while. I’ve heard he just likes the way they look
Outstanding swim for Lane Stone — From a 4:20.7 in HS to 4:14.7 as a freshman at VaTech. Great swimming in Virginia is not isolated to Charlotteville!