By Scott Scofield and Chris Harrell
1650 Freestyle – The top returning swimmer in this event from last year is Florida’s Arthur Frayler who finished third with a time of 14:43.08. This is a new year with new challengers in the mile. Frayler has already swum faster than his 14:43 from last year, going 14:40.05 at SEC’s, but he comes into the 2015 championships seeded fourth. Seeded just in front of Frayler is his teammate, Mitch D’Arrigo -- who is one of the three swimmers seeded under 14:40. Seeded second is Georgia’s Matias Koski who posted a 14:38.72 to win the event at SEC’s. The top seed will be Northwestern’s Jordan Wilimovsky who comes in with a 14:33.50 which he posted in winning Big 10’s. If Wilimovsky can repeat or improve on his performance from conference he could very easily win this race. In the battle for the team race, Texas has two individual qualifiers in this event. Sam Lewis is seeded 19th and freshman Jonathan Roberts is seeded 16th. California does not have an entry here so if those two Texas swimmers can score points it could help them separate from Cal in the team race to kick off the evening on day 3.
Prediction: Wilimovsky, Frayler, Ipsen, D’Arrigo, Koski, Swanson, Thomson, Roberts.
200 Backstroke – California’s Ryan Murphy, the 2014 champion and NCAA record holder, comes into the meet as the top seed and is the only swimmer with a time under 1:39. Murphy ran away with this event last year while setting the NCAA record. As an encore, look for him to push the American and U.S. Open record held by Ryan Lochte this time around. The true race here will be for second place after Murphy. The 2013 champion in this event was Wisconsin’s Drew Teduitis. He could be a factor if he can return to his form from two years ago. Also looking to challenge Teduitis will be Stanford’s David Nolan who finished with the bronze last year as well as Cal’s Jacob Pebley who was fourth. In the battle for the team title, California can make a major move here. Last year Cal had two ‘A’ finalists with Murphy and Pebley, but Texas was able to counter with Kip Darmody and Jack Conger also in the A final. This year, Conger has switched to the 200 butterfly and will not be swimming this event, and Kip Darmody is seeded last with a 1:46.08. The Longhorns’ only other swimmer in this event besides Darmody is William Glass who is seeded 25th. California, with a total of four swimmers in this race also have Jesse Ryckman seeded 24th, and Connor Green seeded 35th.
Prediction: Murphy, Nolan, Teduitis, Pebley, Lehane, Stuart, Patching, Savoy.
Dark Horse: Missouri’s Carter Griffin qualified for this event at last year’s championship as a freshman, finishing the meet with a 1:42.71. This year, he enters the meet with a 1:40.17 which puts him as the sixth seed.
100 Freestyle – Cristian Quintero returns to the championships as the highest finisher from the 2014 meet where he was third. This year his 42.21 entry time currently has him seeded fourth. All three swimmers ahead of him are under the 42 second mark. Seeded third is N.C. State’s Simonas Bilis. Bilis, a ‘B’ finalist from a year ago, currently has a time of 41.94. Seeded second is Florida’s freshman Caeleb Dressel with a 41.90. Your top seed will be Alabama’s Kristian Gkolomeev (also a ‘B’ finalist from a year ago) who has an entry time of 41.68. Look for California’s big guns in Seth Stubblefield, an ‘A’ finalist in Austin, and Tyler Messerschmidt, the 2014 consol champ, to help the Bears score some major points here. Texas returns their ‘A’ finalist from last year in John Murray (the only other swimmer in the field who has been 41) and their ‘B’ finalist from last year in Matthew Ellis. In the team race, California has four swimmers in this race while Texas will have five.
Prediction: Gkolomeev, Murray, Bilis, Quintero, Stubblefield, Dressel, Darmody, Messerschmidt.
Dark Horse: Texas’ Brett Ringgold. In a field that features four freshmen seeded in the top 16, Ringgold is seeded 10th. He could make an instant impact both individually and for Texas in the team race.
200 Breaststroke – Arizona’s Kevin Cordes returns to the championships as the American, NCAA, and U.S. Open record holder. He set the mark with blistering 1:48.66 at last year’s meet, but, like his seed time in the 100 breaststroke, Cordes is not at the top. He will enter the meet fifth with his best time of the year being a 1:52.65 which he posted in December at the Texas Invite. Claiming the top seed is Georgia’s Nicholas Fink. Fink was the bronze medalist a year ago in Austin. The second seed is Texas’s Will Licon who posted a 1:51.77 at Big 12’s. That time took down Olympian Brendan Hansen’s team record. Will Cordes be able to match his time from a year ago or even be able to swim fast enough to defeat the challengers to his throne?
Prediction: Fink, Licon, Prenot, Cordes, Stumph, Funk, Katis, Tierney.
Dark Horse: Alabama’s Anton McKee. He finished fourth in this event last year, but as I mentioned in the 100 breast preview, he is coming off an early season injury. It remains to be seen how fast he’ll be.
200 Butterfly – In what could come down to one of the most anticipated races of the meet, in regards to the team battle at least, the 200 butterfly should provide some major fireworks to conclude the individual racing at this year’s meet. Michigan’s Dylan Bosch comes into the meet as the returning champion and NCAA record holder. Seeded ahead of Bosch is Texas’ Jack Conger, who, in a time trial at the Big 12 conference meet, set the American and the U.S. Open record last month. Also seeded ahead of Bosch is Conger’s Longhorn teammate Joseph Schooling. Schooling, who is just a freshman, has been sensational for the Longhorns all season long. In this event last year, Texas wasn’t able to earn a second swim and thus did not score any points. This year, they will enter the meet with three swimmers seeded in the top four alone (Clark Smith is seeded fourth). At last year’s meet, Cal was able to put a swimmer into the ‘A’ final (now-departed Marcin Tarczynski) and the ‘B’ final (Long Gutierrez). The Cal Bears also have the 2012 champion in this event in William Hamilton plus freshman Justin Lynch, neither of whom competed at the Pac 12 conference meet.
Prediction: Conger, Schooling, Bosch, Kalisz, McCurdy, Knight, Smith, Morris.
Darkhorse: Florida State’s David Knight. The consol winner at last year’s meet Knight is entering the meet with a best time of 1:41.66.
Platform Diving:
After winning four of the last five platform titles, this entire field should be more than relieved that Duke’s Nick McCrory no longer has eligibility. The bad news for this field is that a new star may be on the horizon. Indiana freshman James Connor was the only diver in the country to score over 860 points at his zone meet. He came close to scoring 100 more than that, hanging up an incredible total of 935.80. Connor dressed down the entire – and very talented and competitive, mind you – Zone C field by nearly 165 points. I promise that is not a typo. The person most likely to challenge Connor will be last year’s silver medalist, Rafael Quintero of Arizona. Quintero won the Zone E crown by more than 60 points over last year’s NCAA bronze medalist, Amund Gismervik of Hawai’i. Texas sophomore Mark Anderson has improved from a season ago and will be looking to better his 12th place NCAA finish. The Longhorns will need every point they can get out of the Zone D champ. Expect him to be a solid ‘A’ finalist this year. Another diver that was sequestered to the ‘B’ final a year ago that has very realistic designs on the big boy final this time around is Tennessee’s Mauricio Robles-Rodriguez. MRR was 15th in Austin but easily won the heavily SEC-flavored Zone B meet by nearly 50 points. He was also one of only five divers in the country to compile a score over 800 points at zones. The fifth man to accomplish that feat is Zone A champ Dominic Giordano of Pitt. Much of the Panthers fortunes at this meet will rest on shoulders of the very talented Pitt diver.
The Pick: James Connor, Indiana. The Big Ten champ did dirty, dirty things to the Zone C field two weeks ago in this very pool. If he’s truly peaking at the right time only Arizona’s Quintero will have a shot at knocking him off and even then it’s a longshot.
Divers to Watch: Michael Hixon, Indiana and Kristian Ipsen, Stanford. You didn’t think I was going to leave these two out, did you? Despite the excellent zone diving by the aforementioned field, these two are as big a talents as any in the diving well. Ipsen was sixth a year ago with Hixon seventh. It should be fun to watch these two battle each other collegiately for the final time.
400 Free Relay –
The North Carolina State Wolfpack enter the meet with the top seed and best time of 2:48.92. In 2012, the Pack did not even qualify for the meet. In 2013, the Pack finished 10th overall. In 2014, the Pack moved all the way up to the bronze spot on the podium -- an extremely quick and impressive progression over the course of three seasons. After climbing their way to the pole position, the question will be can they hold onto it? Auburn enters the meet as the defending champion and is the second seed overall. They finished first last year with a 2:48.33 and enter the meet with a 2:48.98 – an impressive feat in that they graduated two swimmers from the relay a year ago. California will enter the meet seeded 10th, but they do return all four of their relay swimmers from a year ago where they placed runner-up. Texas will enter the meet seeded just ahead of the Golden Bears at ninth. They return three out of their swimmers who swam on their fourth place relay from a year ago. They also have options of adding swimmers such as Jack Conger, Brett Ringgold, Joseph Schooling, or Clay Youngquist to the relay if they so wish. It will interesting to see how the swim meet plays out up to this point and how much a factor the result will be in the overall team race.
Prediction: NC State, Texas, California, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Southern California.