By Scott Scofield
400 Individual Medley
Texas’s Will Licon returns to the championships as the defending champion in the 400 IM but there’s a slew of swimmers who are looking to compete with Licon for the top position in this year’s race. Jay Litherland, Josh Prenot, and Gunnar Bentz, each individually posted their fastest LCM 400 IM times of their careers over the summer. Litherland and Prenot took the 1st and 2nd spots at the World University Games and Bentz posted a world ranking time at US Nationals (18th). Licon has to be considered the favorite, but after Litherland, Prenot, and Bentz posted big times this past summer they might be able to defeat Licon this year.
2016 Top 5 400 IM Times:
1) Jay Litherland 3:38.68
2) Gunnar Bentz 3:39.61
3) Andrew Seliskar 3:39.78
4) Josh Prenot 3:39.94
5) Abrahm Devine 3:40.20
Top 8 Predictions:
Licon, Litherland, Bentz, Prenot, Seliskar, McHugh, Ogren, Tesone.
100 Butterfly
Texas’s Joseph Schooling enters the 100 fly as the top seed and the defending champion. He also comes into the meet as the swimmer posting the fastest LCM time over this past summer with his 3rd place finish at the World Championships in Kazan. Even with these accomplishments, this race could be one of the most exciting of the meet. Last year, Schooling’s teammate Jack Conger, only finished .04 seconds behind Schooling and was leading Schooling at the halfway mark. Sandwiched between Schooling and Conger on the entry sheet is Florida’s Caeleb Dressel. Fresh off his NCAA, American, and US Open record in the 50 free, Dressel just might be able to hang with the flyers from Texas. All three swimmers boast exceptional under-water fly kicking and this race should live up to expectations as to one of the best competitions we’ll see over the weekend.
2016 Top 5 100 Fly Times:
1) Joseph Schooling 44.62
2) Caeleb Dressel 44.80
3) Jack Conger 45.19
4) Matthew McHugh 45.46
5) Logan Rysemus 45.59
Top 8 Predictions:
Schooling, Conger, Dressel, Lynch, Lewis, Glass, Murray, Rysemus.
200 Freestyle
Indiana’s Blake Pieroni enters the meet with the top time at 1:32.33. Michigan’s Anders Nielsen and NC State’s Simonas Bilis are right on his heels with 1:32.36 and 1:32.46, respectively. Southern Cal’s Reed Malone, mentioned earlier in the 800 freestyle relay prediction, could also be a factor here individually. All four swimmers will be battling for the 1st place podium position. I am going with Bilis from NC State to win this event this year. NC State’s rise in the past couple of years at this meet has been nothing but phenomenal, and I believe Bilis is going to step up for his team and win this for the Pack. Bilis has been known to take this race out blazingly fast (44.27 split when anchoring the 800 free relay last year). If he can control that front half speed for his finish in this individual event, he has a shot to win it.
2016 Top 5 200 Free Times:
1) Blake Pieroni 1:32.33
2) Anders Nielsen 1:32.36
3) Simonas Bilis 1:32.46
4) Soeren Dahl 1:32.88
5) Ryan Held 1:32.97
Top 8 Predictions:
Bilis, Pieroni, Malone, Haas, Held, Nielsen, Koski, Morris.
100 Breaststroke
The 100 breaststroke might be one of the most fun events at this year’s championship just because of the lack of big named swimmers entered. At last year’s meet, there were seven senior swimmers in the A final. The lone swimmer who wasn’t a senior comes in as the number one seed. Missouri’s Fabian Schwingenschlogl. Last year, Schwingenschlogl represented Western Kentucky. After transferring to Missouri, Schwingenschlogl now looks to become the NCAA champ in an event that is potentially wide open to all competitors. I expect Auburn’s Michael Duderstadt to move up from his 5th seed and finish 2nd behind Schwingenschlogl. Indiana freshman Ian Finnerty can lock down the 3rd spot if he continues his fast swimming from Big 10s.
2016 Top 5 100 Breast Times:
1) Fabian Schwingenschlogl 51.36
2) Ian Finnerty 51.75
3) Brandon Fiala 51.86
4) Connor Hoppe 51.86
5) Michael Duderstadt 51.94
Top 8 Predictions:
Schwingenschlogl, Duderstadt, Finnerty, Hoppe, Fiala, Coombs, Kropp, McKee.
100 Backstroke
California’s Ryan Murphy continues his path to greatness as he enters his junior year as the top seed and the favorite to win the 100 backstroke. After setting the NCAA, American, and US Open records leading off Cal’s 400 medley relay at last year’s championships, will Murphy be able to dip below the 44 barrier? The next question to ask is who will finish 2nd? After finishing 4th in this event last year, I am going with BYU’s Jake Taylor. Taylor swims in a conference where he probably did not need to fully rest in order to win this event, so I expect him to improve from his entry time of 45.74. Rounding out the top 3 will be Southern Cal’s Ralf Tribunstov as he proved last year that he has the capability to swim under the 45 second barrier when he secured the top spot in prelims at the Pac 12 conference championships.
2016 Top 5 100 Back Times:
1) Ryan Murphy 44.75
2) Grigory Tarasevich 44.92
3) Matthew McHugh 45.07
4) Connor Oslin 45.25
5) Ralf Tribunstov 45.30
Top 8 Predictions:
Murphy, Taylor, Tribunstov, Oslin, Tarasevich, McHugh, Marsh, Conger.
Three-Meter Diving
Much like the one-meter springboard, the three-meter has been decimated by Olympic training and losses to graduation. The only two big boy finalists from a year ago hail from the same school. Tennessee’s Liam Stone and Mauricio Robles-Rodriguez finished seventh and eighth, respectively, a season ago in Iowa City and should be major threats to contend this season. In their way will be a strong contingent of Longhorn divers, led by Mark Anderson. Anderson, who was last in consols a year ago, has improved greatly and enters Atlanta with the highest zone score in the country to his credit. Fellow Texas divers Dylan Zoe and Cory Bowersox are also primed to put major points on the board for the already-stacked Longhorns. Ohio State’s Zhipeng Zeng rolled to a more than 50 point win at the always-tough Zone C meet, racking up the second highest zone score in the country behind Anderson. UNC’s Jack Nyquist is last of the four returning divers to score at NCAA’s a season ago. Nyquist took third at the Zone B meet behind Robles-Rodriguez and Stone of Tennessee. Look for Zone D runner-up Matt Barnard of Minnesota to also be a big threat here. Barnard downed zone champ Zeng at Big Ten’s in a super-tight finish.
The Pick: Mark Anderson, Texas. Any number of divers could step up here and win this including Barnard, Robles-Rodriguez, Stone, Arizona’s Rafael Quintero and Zeng but Anderson seems to be diving the best at the right time against the toughest competition.
Divers to Watch: Jacob Crayne and Josiah Purss, Utah. The two Utes impressively swept the top two spots at the Zone E meet over several very talented divers. Could they both qualify for top eight in Atlanta?
200 Medley Relay
California returns as the defending champions in this event, but they do not return their breaststroker and it remains to be seen if Tyler Messerschmidt can equal or best the times he has swam before. With that said, I am picking California to finish 4th this year. NC State comes into the meet as the top seed and their program is proving to be one where they excel at sprinting. After swimming to a 1:23.19 at their conference meet, NC State has put itself in a great position to win this relay. Alabama returns all swimmers from their 2nd place finish a year ago. I predict that they will finish 2nd again. Texas should finish in 3rd with fly split from Joseph Schooling, but their lack of speed at the front half of this race won’t be enough to put them in 1st or 2nd.
2016 Top 5 200 Medley Relay Times:
1) NC State 1:23.19
2) Florida 1:23.69
3) Auburn 1:23.74
4) Arizona 1:23.74
5) Alabama 1:23.75
Top Predictions:
NC State, Alabama, Texas, California, Florida, Auburn, Louisville, Tennessee.