By Dan Lloyd and Scott Scofield
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200 Back
Cal’s Ryan Murphy jumped in this morning for his prelim race and you couldn’t tell whether he was warming up for the race or thinking about what kind of warm down he was going to do after. 1:38.65 never looked so easy. Murphy’s NCAA record along with Lochte’s American record all look to fall tonight. Sean Lehane of Tennessee had an impressive swim in his heat (1:38.76) followed by freshman Henness Stuart of NC State (1:39.60). Look for Murphy to start tonight’s final session out with fireworks.
100 Free
NC State continues to impress with Simonas Bilis (42.18) leading the way going into tonight’s final. The biggest observation from the morning prelim was that no one went 41. It looks like the sprinters are starting to show some fatigue on the last day of competition. Tyler Messerschmidt of Cal was out the fastest of the morning at 19.83 and finished with (42.32) seeded 7th going into tonight’s final. Kris Gkolomeev of Alabama (42.23) is the 2nd seed with Quintero of USC in 3rd (42.26).
200 Breast
The showdown for tonight had a preview this morning. Will Licon of Texas won his prelim heat with the 4th fastest time in NCAA history (1:49.54) going up against Arizona’s Kevin Cordes (1:50.02). Cordes seemed to be holding back and not challenging Licon at the end of the race. Chuck Katis of Cal clocked (1:50.71) for the 3rd fastest time of the morning. Tonight’s final should be one of the most exciting of the evening with Licon, Cordes, and Katis all fighting for the title. With all three pushing each other the biggest question will be if the record time of Kevin Cordes from 2014 will still be standing at the end of the final.
200 Fly
Jack Conger of Texas and Dylan Bosch of Michigan entered the meet as the fastest and second fastest performers all-time in this event. Bosch set the standard first at this meet last year. Conger, in a time trial at the Big 12 champs, bettered Bosch’s time from 2014. Bosch would post the top time in the morning swims with a 1:40.15. He swam the race with the same strategy that he used at last year’s meet in that he really pushed the 2nd 50. His split a 25.02 in that 2nd 50 and had the fastest first 100 split in the field with a 47.32. At the 150 mark Bosch was 1:13.16 which was just off his split from last years championships of 1:12.75. Bosch most likely eased up on the last 50 of this race knowing that he had his heat won. Finishing 2nd in the morning swims was Conger who posted a time of 1:40.97. After taking his race out fast on the first 50 with a time of 22.08, Conger seemed smooth for the next 150 yards. Conger would finish with a time of 1:40.97. Texas was able to put 3 swimmers into the A final with Conger and his teammates of Joseph Schooling (1:41.14) and Clark Smith (1:41.59). Expect Bosch, Conger, and Schooling to battle for the top spot tonight and challenge the NCAA and US Open record of 1:39.31. Conger will have a shot at his own American record of 1:39.33.
400 Free Relay
Southern Cal won the first heat in prelims of the 400 free relay with a nice lead-off from Cristian Quintero who posted a 42.40. With their 2nd and 3rd legs both posting 41.8 with Santo Condorelli and Ralf Tribunstov, Southern Cal finished with a time of 2:48.24 and the top seed going into finals. Second going into finals will be the California Bears. With the 2nd fastest split in the morning swims from Ryan Murphy (41.46), Cal finished with a 2:48.28 as they won heat 3. The 3rd seed going into tonight is the North Carolina State Wolfpack. The Pack featured the fastest relay split in the morning with Simonas Bilis posting a 41.24 on their anchor leg. NC State finished with a time of 2:49.18.
Team Race:
Texas with a 124 point lead on California going into prelims this morning is set to win their 11th team championship. Texas will have 6 A finalist swims and 2 B finalist swims going into tonight. That is not counting diving or their 1650 swimmers. California will also have 6 A finalist swims and 3 B finalist swims going into tonight. Cal does not have a swimmer entered in the 1650. Cal does have 1 diver diving on the platform this morning, but Texas counters with 2. If Texas didn’t already clinch the title yesterday with their 6 A finalist qualifiers in the 100 butterfly, they did confirm this morning that Cal would not be able to mount a comeback.