2014 W. NCAA Picks: Cal Looking to End Georgia’s 200 Freestyle 4-Year Streak With Franklin

The 200 freestyle is one of the more exciting races, at least to me, at the NCAA level. You get quite a mash up of swimmers – the sprinters swim up, and distance swimmer swim down, plus some stroke specialists join the race as well. This is an event that has been dominated by Georgia for many years, and they still have a chance to keep the race in their name, but there will be a big challenge this season. Her name is Missy Franklin.

Yes, we know that you know how good Franklin is. But out of all her events this week, this may be the one she is most likely run down the NCAA record. She, of all people, could possibly ellipse the 1:40 mark by the time she is done with NCAA swimming and/or her swimming career. Franklin has plenty of accolades in this event long course, like her gold medal in Barcelona in the event individually and 800 freestyle relay, plus gold in the 800 freestyle relay at the London Olympics.

But her relay mate from Barcelona, Shannon Vreeland, may be the one who could upset the swimming sweetheart that is Franklin. To me, Vreeland has hid behind the limelight always. She’s had to swim with the likes of Allison Schmidt and Megan Romano, but Vreeland has built a resume that puts her in the same conversations as those two. She’s been right with Franklin, on the relays at the World Championships. Georgia graduated the former two, and now its Vreeland’s time to lead the Dawgs, and take a title of her very own.

There’s always been a lot of people who ‘didn’t understand’

Lindsay Gendron of Tennessee could upset Stanford’s Olympian Lia Neal this week. I pick Gendron for 4th based on the fact it is her senior season, and it’s Neal’s first trip to the NCAA showdown (though Neal has relay experience from the grand-daddy, the Olympics). Tennessee seems to produce seniors who really put the team on their back, and I think that is what will give her the edge to get into the top four in Minneapolis. Gendron is also opting out of a first day individual event (out of the 500 & in the 200 butterfly), which I think will give her a lot of energy for this race.

Neal is one of the swimmers out there that is more well known for her sprinting. Looking at her progress throughout the season, she has picked up more speed on the latter half of it. She put up her season best times at PAC-12s in February, which isn’t exactly typical for most of the top swimmers in that conference, as they normally rest more towards mid-season to train right through until NCAAs. I think momentum, plus her international experience, will be enough for her to get it together to make an impact in this final.

I put Bonnie Brandon in the middle of the field, based on the fact that I don’t think she could go much lower than that; but perhaps go way up. She has been a big player for Arizona through their rough year, and has hardly dropped a race this year; plus, she seems to always find a way to the wall. She is constantly the bridesmaid to her PAC-12 competitors, but I seem to think that this competition continues to make her better, and could be the reason she lands herself onto a big international meet in the very near future.

Rounding out the rest of the top eight, Chelsea Chenault should get herself into the final heat, which will be the first time USC finds themselves with a 200 freestyler in the A final in a very long time. She will need a big confident swim in the morning, after the 500 freestyle the night before, as some of her competitors may just have the 50 freestyle, plus have already some experience on the NCAA stage.

Georgia should continue their tradition of having at least two swimmers in the A final with Brittany MacLean making her way into the top eight. Texas A&M Liliana Ibanez has been getting better and better, and is versatile across the three shortest freestyles, and she could sneak up into the top 8 as well if anybody falters.

Others who are in play here include Florida sophomore Sinead Russell, who is seeded 15th but seems to have a lot of drop still to go. She didn’t swim an individual event on day two at last year’s NCAA’s, focusing on relays and the backstrokes instead. Also in the hunt is North Carolina’s Danielle Siverling; at last year’s NCAA Championship, the UNC girls were dropping time like crazy, everywhere. They’re a little higher seeded this season and so won’t catch everyone as much by surprise as last year, but if Siverling drops again, she could move into the top 8 as well. There’s also another U.S. 800 free relay World Championship swimmer in this field to be reckoned with – Jordan Mattern of Georgia.

1. Missy Franklin, Cal – 1:41.40
2. Shannon Vreeland, Georgia – 1:41.83
3. Liz Pelton, Cal – 1:44.71
4. Lindsay Gendron, Tennessee – 1:43.35
5. Lia Neal, Stanford – 1:43.62
6. Bonnie Brandon, Arizona – 1:43.89
7. Chelsea Chenault, USC – 1:43.91
8. Brittany MacLean, Georgia – 1:43.88

Update: these picks were updated after initial posting to include Liz Pelton, who was 2nd at last year’s NCAA’s. Oversight on our part.