The 2014 “American Short Course Championships” will run from Thursday to Sunday in Austin Texas. This is a unique event, as it combines a Last Chance meet for NCAA men’s swimmers with a club meet for local high school aged swimmers, and a good racing opportunity for some of the Texas post-grads, all in the Texas Swim Center.
Editor’s note: to avoid confusion for some of our readers less familiar, or who are internationals, this meet is an American Championship largely in name only, and is not sanctioned by USA Swimming, the NCSA, or the YMCA that we’re aware of as an actual national championship meet.
Psych sheets are here.
Live results are here.
The most interesting function of this meet is the one as a last-chance event for NCAA qualifying. Among the teams who will send swimmers to this meet include the home team Texas, nearby Texas A&M and SMU, Missouri and Cal, who has sent their non-conference roster to the event. There’s a few other schools smattered in the lineups, including Wyoming and TCU.
The entries in the meet show how nervous some teams are about where the NCAA cut lines could fall this year, with an amazing amount of depth across the country. For example – 29th in the 200 back this year is at a 1:42.46 before the Pac 12 has even swum (which is where the cut line fell last year). That’s already six-tenths faster than what got invited last year, and our guess is that the cut line will get even a few tenths faster than that at Pac 12’s.
That means swimmers like TCU’s Cooper Robinson, who is 25th in the nation at 1:42.33, has arrived for the meet to see if he can’t improve his chances. Last year, that time would have left him feeling very secure.
The men’s 50 free is another example. Texas A&M’s Kyle Troskot (19.52), Texas’ Charlie Moore (19.53), Texas A&M’s Cory Bolleter (19.59), and Missouri’s Logan Mosley (19.61).
A few notable Texas postgrads will be in attendance too: Laura Sogar and Austin Surhoff were the two that jumped out.
Prelims for the meet each day will start at 9:15 AM and finals will start at 6:00 PM – Central Time.
