USC junior Louise Hansson, who is among the newest NCAA record-holders after her 49.43 in the 100 yard fly last week at the Pac-12 Championships, will stand-pat on her schedule from that meet at nationals. She’s entered in the 200 IM, 100 fly, and 200 fly at the meet, and has a top 5 seed in all 3.
The 100 fly and 200 fly, where she’s the #1 seed in the nation, were no-brainers for Hansson. There was, however, an argument to be made for the 100 backstroke instead of the 200 IM. She’s ranked 5th nationally in both events (including a 50.74 relay leadoff in the 100 back at Pac-12s). That 5th in th 200 IM, though, is really a 6th, because the fastest swimmer ever in the event, Ella Eastin, enters the meet seeded 8th, having not swum the race at Pac-12s. That one spot is probably a risk worth taking to avoid a day 3 triple (especially when a day 2 single is the alternative).
Last season at NCAAs, Hansson had the same 3 individual entries, but wound up scratching the 200 IM on day 1 to swim all 5 relays instead. At Pac-12s, USC left her off the 800 free relay. That was a bit fortuitous as that relay wound up being disqualified for an early exchange, so a race by their best swimmer wasn’t wasted.
This year, if the Trojans believe that 5th seed in the 200 IM will hold up, it would be hard to make the same decision. Last season, she went in with a seed time of just 1:55.49. This year, she goes in with a seed time of 1:52.50 (1.22 seconds faster than her previous lifetime best). That drastically changes the calculus.
Whichever relay they leave her off will suffer, that’s undeniable. But even with other good butterfliers and 200 freestylers on the team, Hansson has become so fast that the margins to swap her out on the medleys, 400, or 800 free relay have grown too big to be tenable. The gap in the 200 free relay, on paper, is more like 6-tenths.
