By Chris HarrellWith the women’s meet in the books, it’s time to turn our focus on the men. California turned in an incredible top-to-bottom performance a season ago to get past the University of Texas and win their second consecutive NCAA championship. While those two teams should be in the mix again, the University of Michigan and Stanford looked primed to make a run at the top spot this time around as well. We are mere hours away from finding out for sure…
Day One:
200-Yard Freestyle Relay: Auburn (1:16.23) looked like the team to beat a season ago and they once again enter the meet ranked No. 1 in the country. The blew by the rest of the SEC last month by more than a second, bolstered by a wicked 18.85 lead-off by Marcelo (he’s earned single name identification status at this point). Michigan (1:16.42), who wasn’t even invited to swim this at the meet a season ago, enters ranked second after grabbing 10th in Seattle. Florida State (1:16.76) has upped their game this season as the ACC champs are nearly a full second faster than they were a season ago entering the meet. USC (1:17.13) handled the defending NCAA champs at PAC-12’s (1:17.76) thanks to an eye-popping 18.51 third leg from Vlad Morosov.
The Pick: Auburn. I see a great race coming between the Tigers and the Trojans. We can only hope to get to see Marcelo and Morosov on the same leg but it will be what the other three legs do that determine which one of these two teams take home the title. (Last year’s pick: Auburn; Last year’s winner: California)
Team to Watch: Texas. The Longhorns enter the meet ranked 22nd in this race. No, that’s not a misprint. Twenty-second. While Jimmy Feigen won’t be walking back out on the pool deck any time soon, we all know Texas won’t finish that low. It will be interesting to see how high they move up, especially since three of the other four legs from last year’s fourth-place team are able to return.
500-Yard Freestyle: The defending champ is back in the form of Georgia’s Martin Grodzki (4:16.72) but he’s going to need to be a lot better than he was at SEC’s when he couldn’t even make the big boy final. Defending silver medalist and PAC-12 champ Cristian Quintero (4:13.37) looks primed to take the top spot on the podium as he enters as the top seed. Auburn’s Zane Grothe (4:15.44) has always stepped his game up at NCAA’s and is a big-time racer. Expect the SEC bronze medalist to be right there at the end. This event could be a an avalanche of points for Michigan as they enter the meet with six swimmers ranked in the top 22.
The Pick: Cristian Quintero, USC. Grodzki has been off his game and Quintero has been moving in the right direction. Michigan has several threats but I need to see more out of them at the big meet before I’m comfortable tabbing one as a potential champion again. Time for Quintero to take the next step. (Last year’s pick Ryan Feeley, Michigan;
Last year’s winner: Martin Grodzki, Georgia)
Swimmer to Watch: Will Hamilton, California. As a freshman Hamilton won the ‘B’ final
in a time that would have placed fourth in the ‘A’ (4:15.04), yet he didn’t even individually qualify for the meet in this race. Could a big drop be in order?
200-Yard Individual Medley: Indiana’s Cody Miller (1:41.85) has had a great season as he’s dropped nearly three seconds from this point in time a season ago. Last year, Marcin Tarczynski (1:43.10) was the last swimmer to individually qualify for this race and he ended up getting the win. Michigan’s Kyle Whitaker (1:42.61) enters the meet faster than a season ago, this time ranked fourth. He’ll be looking to improve on a sixth-place finish from a year ago. Last year’s silver medalist Marcin Cieslak (1:44.01) only enters the meet ranked 15th but you can bet he’ll be looking to rebound from a disqualification in the SEC final. Auburn’s Kyle Owens (1:43.45) and Arizona’s Woody Joye (1:44.94) are both returning big boy finalists looking to improve on their finishes from Seattle.
The Pick: David Nolan, Stanford. With the Cardinal ending their epic conference championship run this season and the change in head coaches, perhaps added attention was paid towards the NCAA meet this year. This race will let us know the answer. Nolan (1:42.41) enters ranked second and we all know what he’s capable of. (Last year’s pick: Corey Chitwood, Arizona; Last year’s champ: Marcin Tarczynski, Cal)
Swimmer to Watch: Austin Surhoff, Texas. He won this as a freshman way back in 2010 and enters with a much better seed (10th vs. 21st) and time (1:43.59 vs. 1:45.37) than a season ago. Could he bookend his career with matching titles?
50-Yard Freestyle: Well, this one will be boring. Yeah, right. Everyone that isn’t looking forward to the showdown between Auburn’s Marcelo (18.85) and USC’s Vlad Morosov (18.86) needs to get their head on straight and pay attention. This could be one of the greatest sprint battles in NCAA history. While the pool may have earned the distinction as not being particularly fast any more after last week’s women’s meet, that doesn’t mean this race won’t be worth the price of admission alone. Those that should have the best ringside seat to this titanic sprint duel should be Bradley deBorde of Florida, Shayne Fleming and Seth Stubblefield of Cal, and Jason Schnurr of Ohio State among
others.
The Pick: Vlad Morosov, USC. He may not enter as the leader but he’s the guy I’m going with. He’s never finished worse than sixth while Marcelo has been rapidly shooting up the charts. You can’t go wrong picking either guy. The best part of this battle is that both swimmers are only juniors and we’ll get to do this again next year. (Last year’s pick: Jimmy Feigen, Texas; Last year’s winner: Feigen).
Swimmer to Watch: John Dalton, Texas A&M. The Aggies swim notoriously slow all fall then steadily get faster and faster in the spring. They, almost without exception, peak at NCAA’s across the board. Should this happen again, don’t be surprised to see Dalton in the big boy final.
One-Meter Diving: While this year’s field may not be as deep as the women’s the top handful of competitors are more than worthy adversaries with each zone winner fully capable of winning the crown. Last year’s runner-up Kristian Ipsen of Stanford won both PAC-12’s and Zone E and looks to be the odds-on favorite to win his first NCAA title on this board. Expect to him to get heavy challenges from Zone B champ Nick McCrory of Duke who was fourth, behind two multi-time NCAA champions, two years ago. SEC Diver of the Year, David Bonuchi of Missouri, nearly completed a hat trick at the conference meet and enters with the Zone D title under his belt. Kentucky’s Greg Ferrucci is a veteran at the NCAA meet and enters having swept both springboards at the Zone C meet. Other top prospects include Virginia Tech’s Logan Shinholser (seventh in 2012) and USC’s Harrison Jones, who nearly up-ended Ipsen at PAC-12’s).
The Pick: Kristian Ipsen, Stanford. The bridesmaid last year turns into the bride. Ipsen has the makings of becoming one of the great divers in NCAA history. Earning his first one-meter title should be the next step in that process. (Last year’s pick: Kristian Ipsen, Stanford; Last year’s winner: Drew Livingston, Texas)
Diver to Watch: Harrison Jones, Arizona State. The Sun Devil senior sat out last season after transferring from USC but has always been a talented diver with the ability to win an NCAA title. That fact that he nearly beat Ipsen at PAC-12’s is Exhibit A.
400 Medley Relay: Michigan (3:05.42) enters with the national lead but was ranked second a year ago then tumbled to sixth at the big dance. Like the 500 free, this will be another event in which we will find out if the Wolverines are better prepared for NCAA’s this time around. Defending champion California (3:06.09) enters ranked fourth, more than comfortably close enough to consider them a favorite though they will have to replace three of four legs from last season. Last year’s top seed, Arizona (3:05.69), finished second a season ago and enter this season ranked second. Having Kevin Cordes on your breaststroke leg is a great equalizer that gives the Cats a chance anytime they hit the water.
The Pick: Arizona. They have enough members of last year’s squad returning and the best breaststroker in the country. If the men’s relays look as good as the women’s did last week, I think Zona is the team to beat in what could be one the best races of the meet. (Last year’s pick: Texas; Last year’s champion: California)
Relay to Watch: Stanford. The Cardinal (3:08.08) may only rank ninth entering the meet but they were fourth a season ago and only lost their breaststroke leg. If they can get anything at all out of Mason Shaw, they’ll be in the mix.