2017 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 22 – Saturday, March 25
- IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Texas (results)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Event Previews
- Live Results
- Thursday Morning Heat Sheet
NC State missed the A final of the 400 medley relay while swimming an alternate lineup and gaining almost two seconds. Cal very nearly missed the final as well while swimming without Olympic champ Ryan Murphy.
NC State switched up its lineup pretty dramatically from ACCs. Olympian Ryan Held didn’t swim that relay at the conference level, and is probably most valuable on the other four relays at this poing. At ACCs, it was Soeren Dahl who anchored, and this morning was Justin Ress. Their splits were pretty comparable, but the team gained six tenths switching in Hennessey Stuart for Andreas Vazaios on backstroke and 1.2 seconds subbing Coleman Stewart for Ress on fly.
Here’s a splits comparison for NC State between the two meets:
| ACCs | NCAA Prelims | ||
| Andreas Vazaios | 45.32 | 45.91 | Hennessey Stuart |
| Derek Hren | 51.91 | 51.84 | Derek Hren |
| Justin Ress | 45.38 | 46.58 | Coleman Stewart |
| Soeren Dahl | 41.95 | 41.90 | Justin Ress |
| 3:04.56 | 3:06.23 | ||
The Wolfpack wound up gaining about 1.7 seconds from their seed time and fading to 12th. Their ACC time would have taken 7th this morning.
Cal got 8th, sneaking into the final on a DQ to Alabama. The Golden Bears were sitting 9th after all heats finished, but a DQ to Alabama’s fly leg bumped the Bears in. Alabama had qualified 6th in 3:04.35.
The Golden Bears didn’t swim stud backstroker Ryan Murphy on the relay, instead going with new addition Quah Zheng Wen. That decision cost the team up to 2.8 seconds as Quah split 46.25 and the Bears went 3:04.95. On the plus side, now that the DQ averted a disaster, Cal is only about two seconds behind top qualifier Missouri with plenty of time to drop tonight from an outside lane.
Unfortunately for Cal, not even that amount of luck will put them within 100 points of Texas by the end of the meet.
Yeeeeeessss
While the NC STATE coaches are wizards at getting their swimmers to improve and perform, they need some better skills at putting together relays.
In the women’s meet their 800 freestyle relay was seeded fifth and finished​ 21st because they anchored with a Sprint backstroker who went 148 (Elise Haan) and left to 145 swimmers (Hannah Moore and Natalie Labonge) sitting on the bench. This cost them a 6th Place overall meet finish as they only lost to Louisville by a half a point.
Is anyone having sound problems with the online broadcast?
While I agree the women’s 800 Free Relay lineup puzzled me, there were myriad other chances for them to get that 0.5 point. Moore had to swim lights out in prelims to A final the 500. Could she have done that after swimming the 800 free relay? Who knows?
As for the men, they were seeded 11th and qualified 12th. Hardly a collapse.
Moore could’ve easily handled the 200 free the day before the 500 free, many of the 800 free relays were filled with swimmers in the 500 the next day that needed to swim lights out to make the finals. But if not Moore, then Labonge, Duffield or Nevalainen (at least freestylers) could have found that .5 required to score a single point. Not dissing on Haan, she actually swam well for not training for that event and being primarily a backstroker. I appreciate her stepping up and doing her best. It was just a weird and costly relay composition AND it started the meet off on a sour note and certainly hurt momentum. That was the worst part of it…..
Haan went 1:46.2 flat start last year
If Haan went 1:46 flat start last year then I stand corrected. We State fans just haven’t seen her do a 200 free all year. I’ll drop this dead horse. 🙂
NC state same thing as least year killing my picks
“Their splits were pretty comparable, but the team gained six tenths switching in Hennessey Stuart for Andreas Vazaios on backstroke and two tenths subbing Coleman Stewart for Ress on fly.”
It looks like Stewart’s split was 1.2 seconds slower than Ress’s, not .2.
What were they thinking?
Ress, Dahl, Vazaios, Held… So many options for a 45-point flyer, and they use a guy who is not even a flyer.
I think they wanted to rest Held, Vazaios, and Dahl because they are swimming individual events tonight and have a lot of races this weekend in general. Ress would have been the best option, but they would have to find a new anchor. Maybe they should have kept Ress on fly and gone with Schiellerup on free.
Also, if I’m not mistaken, a couple years ago NC State did the opposite, they loaded up the prelims of the 400 medley relay to make top 8 and then actually put slower swimmers in the final and still scored 22 points.
This meet is too fast. The stars are supposed to be able to back off in prelims, and put on a show in finals. That’s not possible anymore when everyone is fast.
Yes, I’m a swim fan complaining about a meet being too fast
Nice problem to have
Cal did this an escaped disaster. NC state got burned though.
Durden got lucky