Swimcloud

NCAA DI Prelims: Day 1 - Updated With Diving

By Chris Harrell

Division I Championship
Division III Championship

200 Free Relay: Auburn had a pretty solid morning as a team and they started it off right by qualifying in the top spot here in 1:15.50 thanks to three sub-19 splits, including an 18.93 leadoff by Adam Brown. Stanford (1:15.84) topped Cal (1:16.67) to win heat three as the NorCal squad picke dup the No. 2 and 4 seeds for tonight. Texas qualified third after coming in behind Auburn in heat two (1:16.66). Arizona won heat one in 1:16.89 with USC (1:17.30) and Minnesota (1:17.58) right behind them. Virginia grabbed the eighth and final spot by taking third in the Auburn-Texas heat (1:17.70). Clemson, Ohio State and Texas A&M all finished less than .2 behind the Cavs.

500 Freestyle: Virginia senior Matt McLean was the story here as he smoked the field to the tune of 4:12.26. McLean also helped pull Bobby Bollier of Stanford to the second seed (4:14.84). Conor Dwyer won his heat in an unspectacular 4:15.55. We’ll see a great battle between he and Mclean tonight. Michael McBroom of Texas looked more than comfortable in his home pool, qualifying fourth out of a non-circle-seeded heat in 4:16.14. Auburn freshman Zane Grothe impressed by taking the first circle-seeded heat in 4:16.57 to qualify fifth. Sean Ryan of Michigan (4:16.84) grabbed third in the McLean heat to make himself the second freshman in the big boy final. Stanford’s Chad LaTourette (4:17.51) and Texas’ Jackson Wilcox (4:17.60) grabbed second and third in the Dwyer heat to round out the top eight qualifiers. Sophomores Michael Flach of South Carolina and Ryan Feeley were odd men out after throwing times of 4:17.76 and 4:18.25 on the board.

200 IM: Stanford’s Austin Staab looked greased up and ready to roll after rolling to a time of 1:42.91 in the final heat. Bill Cregar of Georgia finished right behind him in the heat and overall (1:43.21). Arizona junior Cory Chitwood got off to a great start in his meet with a heat-winning 1:43.55 in his ‘off’ event. Kyle Whitaker of Michigan showed no freshman jitters as he defeated defending champion Austin Surhoff of Texas in heat six. Whitaker qualified fourth in 1:43.80 while Surhoff was fifth overall in 1:44.12. Austen Thompson of Arizona (second in the Chitwood heat) and Marcin Cieslak of Florida (third in the Whitaker heat) swam the exact same time of 1:44.24 to qualify together in sixth. Cal junior Martin Liivamagi scooped up the eighth and final spot after taking third in the Chitwood heat in 1:44.27. Nick D’Innocenzo of Texas and Sebastien Rousseau both just missed the making the ‘A’ (by .03 and .11, respectively).

50 Free: Both Nathan Adrian and Auburn came to play in this one as Adrian toyed with his American record (18.76 in heat seven; record is 18.71) while Auburn qualified six swimmers for night swims. Auburn’s top qualifier was Adam Brown who ranked second with an 18.91 to beat Jimmy Feigen of Texas (19.13; qualified fifth) in heat six. Alex Coville of Stanford ranks third at 19.01 and Vlad Morosov fourth (19.12) after second and third place finishes in the Adrian heat. Adam Small, also in the Adrian heat, ranks fifth (19.27) heading into tonight’s big boy final. Karl Krug of Auburn (19.31) outdueled Cal senior Graeme Moore (19.36), as well as hometown favorite Michael Richards (19.43; 10th) in the first of the circle-seeded heats. A third Auburn swimmer, Kohlton Norys, just missed the ‘A’ final in his ‘third’ event, hitting the wall in 19.38.

400 Medley Relay: Texas finished up a workmanlike morning by crushing the field in the prelims of the longer medley relay in 3:05.61, which included a 51.24 breast leg by Scott Spann. Florida, who entered as the top seed, won heat two in 3:07.27 in come-from-behind fashion thanks to a 41.98 anchor by Shaune Fraser. Ohio State, seeded eighth coming in, qualified third (3:07.68) – ahead of Cal overall and in their heat (3:08.03; fourth). Stanford (3:08.13) and Virginia (3:08.45) came in behind Florida in the final heat to grab fifth and sixth, respectively. Arizona qualified seventh despite winning heat one in 3:08.60 while UNLV, fourth in the Texas heat, grabbed the final big boy slot at 3:09.96. Tennessee (3:09.41), USC (3:09.42) and Auburn (3:10.37) all missed out on the night’s final ‘A’ heat.

One-Meter Diving: Not even considered the top diver on his own team, A&M’s Cam McLean threw down solid second and third round dives to jump out to a 10-point lead over 2009 champ Drew Livingston of Texas at the halfway point of the competition. After missing his fourth dive, McLean fell to fourth with Livingston capturing his first lead. McLean’s teammate Grant Nel climbed to second with McCrory of Duke third with two rounds to go. Nel nailed his fifth rounder to take his first lead of prelims and held it through the end (408.35) with Livingston second (398), McCrory third (386.15), and Mclean fourth (378.5). Michael Wright of Tennessee hung around the No. 7/8 slot most of the rounds but nailed his last one to finish fifth (357.35). All-world diver David Boudia missed his first dive, spent time playing catch-up, then missed again in the fourth round but still managed to qualify sixth (353.10). Constantin Blaha of Arizona State climbed into the top eight in the third round and never fell out again, qualifying seventh (342.95) while Riley McCormick of ASU made it two Sun Devils to sneak into the big boy final (342.45). 

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