Brandon, Meyer in line for third wins on day 3 of Texas Invite

Bonnie Brandon leads the field in the women’s 200 back, which would be her third win of the weekend. The Arizona sophomore has already taken the 200 and 500 frees in big-time performances. Her teammate Michael Meyer also looks for his third win, leading the men’s 200 fly field at 1:43.65.

Kevin Cordes will look to break another American record – he was a ways off his 200 breast mark this morning at 1:52.77, but it’s still worth keeping an eye on the man who broke the 100 breast national record last night.

Both 100 frees should be great shows, with Margo Geer and Kasey Carlson both going 47.6s in the morning session for the women and Cristian Quintero and Caleb Weir tying for the men’s top seed.

Live results here.

Day 2 recap here.

Arizona’s Bonnie Brandon is in line for her third win of the meet, taking the top seed in the women’s 200 back with a time of 1:53.49 after winning the 200 and 500 frees the previous two nights. Her top competition will be USC’s Henriette Stenkvist and Texas’ Tasiji Karosas. UCLA’s Madison White sits 4th.

Defending NCAA champ Drew Teduits out of Wisconsin holds the pole position in the men’s 200 back. He went 1:41.62, but should have stiff competition from last night’s 100 back winner Mitchell Friedemann of Arizona, who sits just .02 back in 1:41.64. Texas’ Jack Conger is the third seed in 1:42.86, followed by Ellis Miller of Arizona. Rounding out the A final are Will Glass (Texas), Thane Maudslien (Arizona), Nate Savor (Penn State) and Jack Manchester (Harvard).

A pair of high seeds from USC just missed the championship final – Chase Bloch was 1:44.94 for 9th and Luca Spinazzola went 1:45.04 for 10th. Absent for Texas was Kip Darmody, who has been scratching his individual events so far this weekend after swimming only the 200 free relay on Thursday night.

Margo Geer and Kasey Carlson look primed for a showdown tonight in the women’s 100 free. Geer went 47.61 and Carlson 46.67 to take the top two seeds into tonight’s final. Behind them, Wisconsin Badger Ivy Martin continued her great season, dipping under 49 for the first time in her career to take the 3 seed in 48.53. Penn State’s Alyson Ackman sits fourth and Sam Tucker of Texas is 5th, followed by her teammate Gretchen Jaques.

There was a tie atop the prelims in the men’s 100 free, with USC’s Cristian Quintero and Caleb Weir of Texas both going 42.66s out of their heats. Incoming Arizona Wildcat Brad Tandy, who won the 50 free in an eye-opening 18.9 on Thursday, is third in 42.96. There was another tie for fourth, with training partners Jimmy Feigen and John Murray both going 42.98. Dimitri Colupaev, Santo Condorelli and Matt Ellis round out the A final.

For the second straight morning, Laura Sogar will head in with a top-seeded breaststroke. The former Texas Longhorn went 2:08.31 to grab the top spot in the 200 breast heading out of prelims. She’ll be followed by Arizona’s Emma Schoettmer, who was also 2:08, and USC’s Andrea Kropp, who broke through after three straight 9th place finishes the past two nights. Gretchen Jaques of Texas sits fourth, 100 breast champion Kasey Carlson of USC fifth, and her teammate Stina Gardell sixth. All three of those women were 2:10 in prelims.

Arizona star Kevin Cordes was 1:52.77 to take the top seed in the men’s 200 breast a day after setting a new American record in the 100. The splits make it look like Cordes let up a little on the final 50, going from a 28.9 split on his third 50 to a 29.6 on the closing leg instead of gaining speed, as he usually does. The question will be how much faster Cordes can go at finals and if he can challenge his American record of 1:48.68 from last March.

Thiago Parravicini of Incarnate Word and Sam Rowan of Arizona will battle it out for second tonight, both going 1:55s this morning. Arizona’s Eric Solis sits fourth, just .01 up on Steven Stumph out of USC. Will Licon (Texas) and Andrew Sovero (Arizona) round out the A final.

As she did in the 100 fly Thursday, UCSB’s Andrea Ward roared out to a big prelims performance and a top seed in the 200 fly. She went 1:56.11 to hold down the 1-seed going into tonight’s finals. USC’s Jasmine Tosky sits second with a prelims swim of 1:56.18. Watch out for Tosky in the final; she was 1:53.98 at this time last year. UCLA Bruin Noelle Tarazona wasn’t far behind the lead pair after posting a 1:56.37 this morning. Arizona’s Ashley Evans and Rice University’s Casey Clark are the 4 and 5 seeds, followed by Penn State’s Gabi Shishkoff and Arizona’s Elizabeth Pepper. There will be a swim-off for 8th place between UCLA’s Katie Kinnear and Texas’s Kelsey Leneave.

Michael Meyer is also in line for 3 wins for Zona – he went 1:43.65 to pull in the top seed in the men’s 200 fly. His teammate Matt Barber sits second in 1:44.35. The entire rest of the A final put up 1:45s this morning, making for an intense championship heat tonight. That crew includes Clark Smith of Texas, Cary Wright from USC, Wisconsin post-grad Dan Lester, USC’s Michael Domagala, Clay Youngquist of Texas and Jacob Luna out of Harvard.

Three Texas swimmers just missed the A final – John Martens, Tripp Cooper and Chris Scheaffer took 9th, 10th and 11th, respectively.

Heats of the 1650 take place this afternoon. The finals will begin tonight at 6:00 Central.