2024 Notre Dame Last Chance Meet
- March 1-2, 2024
- Rolf’s Athletic Center, Notre Dame, Indiana
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “Notre Dame Last Chance”
Last chance meets are underway, giving swimmers one last crack at earning an NCAA qualification time.
At the Notre Dame Last Chance Meet, a quartet of Louisville swimmers put up some times that will likely earn invites to the NCAA Championships in March.
Cardinal junior Rye Ulett swam the 200 back, an event she’s earned an NCAA invitation in for the past two years. She put up a time of 1:53.43 in prelims to jump from 35th to 25th in the rankings this season. The women’s cutline was row 39 for the past two years (read more on what that means here), so while her time was slower than the 2023 invited time (1:53.34), it seems likely Ulett will make another NCAA appearance later this March.
Her older sister, Tristen Ulett, also competed. She swam a 100 fly time trial Friday morning, clocking 52.04 to sit in a precarious 38th this season. Her best time is over a second faster (51.02), set in 2022, but she did take a huge chunk out of her previous season best with that swim (52.72). Ulett has another chance to take a swing at the 100 fly in the actual event on Saturday.
Moving to the men’s meet, Gustavo Saldo clocked a personal best in the 200 fly to slot in at 16th this season (1:41.49). That lowered his best time from 2022 by a few tenths (1:41.80), and slashed over a second off his season best that he first swam at the Louisville v. Kentucky dual, and replicated last weekend at ACCs (1:42.86). The men’s cutline fell around 30 last year, so Saldo appears to be in a relatively safe position.
Senior Dalton Lowe, who has been a key member of the Cardinals’ NCAA relays for the past few years, competed in a 100 fly time trial, shaving three-hundredths of a second off his season best (45.30). He moves up from 23rd to a tie for 22nd, but like T. Ulett has a chance to take a crack at it again on Saturday.
Rounding out the likely Louisville qualifiers is Guy Brooks, who alongside his teammate Denis Loktev competed in a 200 free time trial to close out the evening session. Brooks clocked a new personal best of 1:32.00, rocketing up from 36th to 10th to earn a likely invite. Loktev clocked a new PB of 1:32.92, which ranks 34th, and will likely compete in the individual event on Saturday.
Other Notable Swims and Near-Misses:
- Notre Dame’s Tyler Christianson clocked 1:54.54 in the 200 breast during the evening time trials. He holds a season best of 1:53.47 from the Ohio State Invite last November, which currently ranks 24th.
- Louisville’s Charlie Crush clocked a big personal best in a 100 back time trial, swimming 45.82 to get under 46-seconds for the first time and improving on his time from ACCs by over half-a-second. He currently ranks 37th.
Updated 3/2/2024 with Friday evening time trials results.
A few notable swims missed in the Friday PM Time Trials.
Impressive times, but doesn’t matter if not done when it counts
i mean, i think getting an invite to NCAAs means that they got it done when it counted
One could say that yes, but end of day you gotta do it at a meet like a conference championship or ncaa championship.