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NCAA's Day Two (Saturday)

On the second day of the Men's NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships the University of California did everything in its power to secure their first NCAA team title since 1980.  Time and time the Golden Bears, often swimming from outside lanes, ambled their way into eight swims in finals and an additional six more in the consolation heats.

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While the morning swims from Cal may have sapped some of the energy from the team race, excitement was not absent on this third session of the championships with eighteen athletes involved in swim-offs at the session's conclusion.

Auburn led the way in the qualifying in the 200 Medley Relay.  It was a bright spot in an otherwise rough day for Brett Hawke's charges, perhaps most obvious in the 100 yard backstroke.  Where the Tigers had three finalists including champion Kohlton Norys.  This year Norys finished 19th while fellow finalists Jared White and Pascal Wollach qualified 9th and 16th respectively.

Cal wasn't far behind in the medley - touching in 1:24.99 to qualify second.  The Golden Bears anchored with Josh Daniels.  The former walk-on will likely be given the anchor role tonight in order to save nathan Adrian for the 800 freestyle relay.  Given his 18.68 split from last night's 200 free relay and the fact that breaststroker Damir Dugonjic was out slower in this morning's short realy than yesterday's 400 Medley, the Golden Bears are looking good.

The most exciting storyline of the relays was that there were two ties.  Texas A&M and Michigan went head to head for the last spot in the big final.  Texas A&M got in while Michigan went to consols.  The loser of the Georgia - Minnesota match wasn't so lucky.  In that case Georgia took advantage of Minnesota's lack of a backstroker to earn a second swim while the Gophers land out of the points.

Two teams in much need of a boost got one in the 400 IM.  The University of Michigan got theirs when Andre Schultz and Tyler Clary cruised into the big heat.  The Wolverines have had a meet of ups and downs.  Michigan, which began the meet in contention for a top five finish is likely out of the top five, but has separated itself from the likes of Virginia, Georgia, and Ohio State. 

Arizona also got a boost when Clark Burckle and Jack Brown both qualified in the big eight with Austen Thompson earning a consol spot.  Burckle was reportedly one of the swimmers affected by the norovirus, but the lanky Kentuckian showed no signs of weakness as he equalled his prelim time from a year ago and he'll stand side-by-side with teammate Jack Brown infinals.  Last year's runner-up Gal Nevo also eased into the big final with a qualifyingtime of 3:41.93.  He will be pressed to match the early pace set by the liks of Clary and Brown, but could, along with Florida's Billy Cregar prove lethal in the back half.  While Cal placed no swimmers in the big final Martin Liivamagi, Aaron Casey and Ben Hinshaw all moved up to secure spots and points in the consol heat.

Cal continued to demonstrate that they want this 2010 title to go home with them on Sunday.  Nathan Adrian got them started off with a 46.7 to put him in the B final tonight and then Tom Shields followed up the fastest fly split on the medley last night with the top swim this morning in the second to last heat with a 45.67.  The last heat saw some more Cal fireworks with Mathias Gydsen putting together an amazing swim out of lane 1 to claim the second seed in tonight’s final at 45.90.  Shields and Gydsen will be joined by Cal teammate Graeme Moore who finished in seventh.  Tyler McGill of Auburn is the third seed, one of only two Tigers to make final heats this evening.  Tommy Wyher of UNC gives the ACC a place at the table and a resurgent Texas group adds Hill Taylor in fifth.  Eugene Godsoe is carrying the hopes of the Cardinal with a double finals effort in this event at sixth.  We had to wait a few hours for a swim off between last night 50 freestyle champ Josh Scneider vs. Mark Dylla, but it was a great race ending in Dylla pushing past Schneider on the final length.  Texas stays in the team race with Neil Caskey in Consols to duke it out with Adrian.

Tom Shields is going to need every ounce of his Mission Viejo training background tonight as he will go back-to-back heats with his finals swim in the 100 fly, followed  by a consol appearance in the 200 freestyle where he finished eleventh.  Shields pulled it off at Pac-10s with a consol heat in between and no 800 Freestyle Relay later that evening.  The back-to-back individual swims, plus the relays tonight will be a true test of Shields’ grit.    The final heat looks like a dual meet between Florida and Texas, with each school claiming 3 spots.  Conor Dwyer was the fastest morning qualifier followed by Scott Jostes of Texas.  Jostes went out fast, just like he did yesterday in the 500, but with a much better end result this morning.  Florida will have both Brett and Shaune Fraser in finals as the brothers were only separated by .09 with UVA’s Scot Robison and UT’s Ricky Berens sandwiched in between.  Three-time finalist in this event, Jean Basson, tied for 7th with Texas American Record Holder Dave Walters to round out the heat.  Texas will need every point they can get in this heat to make a dent in Cal’s stellar effort this morning.

Stanford, which hasn't been able to catch a break thus far, got one in the 100 breaststroke when they secured spots for Curtis Lovelace and John Criste.  Both used strong back-halves.  Criste was out in a pedestrian 24.85 while Lovelace posted the fastest final 25 of the meet - a quick 13.94.  Arizona's Marcus Titus gave himself the inside lane for a run at the Wildcat's second 100 breaststroke title in as many weeks. 

The points will go to California however.  They squeezed three Bears - Damir Dugonjic, Martti Aljand, and Sean Mahoney - into the top heat with a fourth - Nolan Koon just missing.  Scott Spann of Texas took the final spot.

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