Preview: ACC vs Big Ten Challenge Rematches To Come At IU Invite

2018 IU Invitational

• Thursday-Saturday, November 15-17th
• Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center, Bloomington, IN
• Short Course Yards
• Psych Sheet

TEAMS ATTENDING

• Indiana
• Purdue
• NC State
• Louisville
• Arizona State

4 teams that had swimmers compete at last weekend’s ACC vs Big Ten College Challenge meet – Indiana, Purdue, NC State, and Louisville – will be meeting again this weekend at the IU Invitational. There is only one other team entered in the meet, Arizona State. Due to this, we will see a number of races where many of the same swimmers, with some new additions, will be competing against each other again.

A good example of this is the men’s 200 IM, where Andreas Vazaios will go head-to-head against fellow NCAA A-finalists from last year, Vini Lanza and Ian Finnerty. Last weekend, Vazaios won that contest in handily (that may be a bit of an understatement), finishing 7 seconds ahead of Finnerty and 9 ahead of Lanza. Depending on how rested these swimmers are, that race could be considerably closer this time around. Vazaios and Lanza will face off in the 200 fly as well, an event where they have both been under 1:40. Nicolas Albiero and Zach Harting will be in the mix there as well.

Mallory Comerford is notably swimming the 50 free instead of the 500 on Thursday. Comerford is also opting to swim the 100 fly instead of the 200 free on day 2, a move which isn’t that surprising, since she’s already posting very fast times in the 200 on two separate occasions this Fall. On a similar note, Lilly King is entered in the 100 back in addition to her usual slate of the breaststrokes and 200 IM.

Speaking of breaststroke, this meet will be IU’s first chance this season to showcase its rested and suited breaststroke squads, led by 2 current NCAA and American record holders. In the women’s 100 breast, IU has 5 swimmers seeded 1:01.3 or faster, 6 seeded under 1:02, a group which is of course led by American record holder Lilly King. In the 200, IU has 8 swimmers seeded 2:13.6 or faster, again led by King’s American Record 2:02.60. In the men’s 100 breast, Ian Finnerty‘s American record 49.69 leads a group of 5 IU swimmers, all of whom are seeded 54.4 or faster. 4 of those 5 swimmers are seeded under 2:00 in the 200 breast, an event where Louisville and Arizona State each have 3 seeded under 2:00.

The men’s 100 free will be another exciting race, where we’ll see four 41 second 100 freestylers competing. Zach Apple, Justin Ress, Jacob Molacek, and Bruno Blaskovic were all finalists at NCAAs last season, and their best times are separted by only .65 seconds, with Ress leading the way. Coleman Stewart will not be swimming the 100 back, where he currently leads the NCAA, but will be competing in the 200 back, coming in as the top seed.

With Comerford out of the 500, Sophie Cattermole is the top seed by a 2 second margin over Casey Jernberg. Cattermole also has taken the top seed in the 200 free with Comerford’s absence.