2022 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING & DOWELBOAT CHAMPIONSHIP
WEDNESDAY NIGHT HEAT SHEET
The final competition of the varsity championship of the year has finally arrived, and the Men’s Division I Championship kicks off tonight at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta campus. The final time trial session starts today at 6:00 pm ET.
Today’s session will be short but intense: the start of the competition will be the finals of the 200m medley relay and the 800m free relay.
The Louisville Cardinals took first place in the 200m medley relay in 1:21.84, the only team to break the 1:22 barrier this year, thanks in large part to a massive 19.50 split from Dalton Lowe at the ACC. . However, Louisville was hit hard yesterday because their anchor, Abdelrahman Elarabi was scratched from the meeting. This will present head coach Atura Albiero with an interesting choice as the Cardinals left his son, senior 5th year Nicholas, in the ACC 200m relay.
Louisville is the current pool record holder, breaking the record last month at the ACC. Lots of teams rallied behind Louisville, with Florida, Ohio State, Texas and Alabama placing between 1:22.06 and 1:22.28. Notably, the Cal Bears, who plan to challenge for the tag team title, will swim in the penultimate moto after finishing 12th in 1:23.26.
The Arizona State Sun Devils took first place in the 800 relay in 6:07.51, earning them the Pac 12 title. They are led by a senior Grant House, which also takes first place in the individual competition 200 for free. Florida, North Carolina, Stanford and Texas will be in hot pursuit in 6:08. The Longhorns are the reigning champions in the event and have also held an NCAA record of 6:05.08 since 2017.
200 medley relay
- NCAA record: Texas (2017): 1:21.54.
- NCAA meeting record: Texas (2017): 1:21.54.
- American record: Cal (2018): 1:21.88.
- US Open Record: Texas (2017): 1:21.54.
- Pool record: Louisville (2022): 1:21.84.
Top 8 finishers:
In a thrilling final run, Florida beat Texas with one touch to clinch the NCAA title in 1:21.13, the fastest time ever. The Gators gave way to Adam Cheney, who split at 20.19. He was followed by Dillon Hillis (23.20), Eric Friese (19.36) and anchor Will Davis (18.38). Friese’s split ties him with Joseph Schooling for the fastest 50 fly split of all time.
Texas was also under the old NCAA and US Open record with their 1:21.36. Anthony Grimm led with 20.65, followed by Caspar Corbo (22.55), Alvin Jiang (20.08) and Cameron Ochinachi (18.08).
In total, four of the five fastest 200m relays in history took place on this course tonight.
The first run went to the University of Virginia who touched in 1:22.97, Matt Brownstead led in 20.93 backstroke for the Cavaliers, Noah Nichols tied for 23.23, Matt King tied for 19.94 on the fly and Augustus Lamb closed out in 18. 87. . It’s over a full second of their seed’s fall and they touched just before Auburn, who also had a big fall to touch in 1:23.25.
Harvard’s Dean Farris fired an early warning shot in the second moto, 20.36 ahead of Harvard’s relay for 6th of the all-time top 50 and 5th in the NCAA split. He was followed by Jared Simpson, who split his chest at 23.38. Junior Umit Gures followed with a 19.81 fly split, while Rafael Marcu closed out with 18.87. their time of 1:22.42 now ranks first in the rankings with two runs remaining. The swim also broke the previous Ivy League record by over a second and a half.
The third run set off a massive fireworks display, with both Cal and North Carolina State posting a fastest time of 1:21.69, faster than any team that competed. Cal led with Bjorn Seeliger, who clocked 20.08, the fastest 50m of all time. He is followed by Liam Bell (22.77), Trenton Julian (20.12) and Daniel Carr (18.78). North Carolina State was led by Katzper Stokowski, who finished second in history behind Zieliger. Then Rafal Cousteau spat 23.22, Niels Corstanier split 19.55 on the fly and David Curtiss closed at 18.76. These swims are the second fastest of all time, only behind Texas. He also sets a new Pac 12 record for the state of California and a new ACC record for the state of North Carolina.
800 free relay
- NCAA record: Texas (2019): 6:05.08
- NCAA meeting record: Texas (2019): 6:05.08
- American Record: Texas (2019): 6:05.08
- US Open Record: Texas (2019): 6:05.08
- Pool record: Texas (2016): 6:08.03
Top 8 finishers:
The University of Texas dominated the final heat, breaking a new NCAA and American record in 6:03.89, becoming the first team in 6:05 AND 6:04. Senior Olympian Drew Kibler led in 1:30.54 to Kobe Carrozza, who split in 1:31.46 in the second leg. Luke Hobson then shared 1:30.84 in the third leg, with Carson Foster pinning for 1:31.05.
Georgia, which floated out of lane 7, held the lead halfway through the race and finished second in 6:05.59, just short of Texas’ 2019 NCAA record. They were led by freshman Matt Seyts in 1:30.78, who then lost to sophomore Luca Urlando in 1:30.58. Zach Hills split in 1:32.27 in the third leg, while Jake Magahi stuck in 1:31.96.
Also of note, Stanford decided to use freshman superstar Andrey Minakov initially after leaving him out of that relay on the Pac 12s. The risk paid off: they finished third in 6:-6.83, almost two seconds faster than their seed. Minakov led in 1:31.49, followed by Luke Maurer (1:32.60), Ron Polonsky (1:31.37) and Preston Forst (1:31.36). Their Pac 12 rivals Kal were three seconds behind their seed and finished 4th in lane eight.
Top-seeded Arizona State improved slightly from its seed, touching 6:07.32 to finish in 5th place. They were led by freshman lead Leon Marchand, who shared 1:29.96, the only other under 1:30 behind Dean Farris.
Three years ago, Dean Farris led Harvard’s 800th American Record fashion, and tonight he decided to swim the return leg of the Crimson. He was fast at 20.13 at 50 and 42.86 at 100, but trailed heavily in the last 50, splitting 1:29.85. While Harvard had the lead halfway through the Farris split, the Ohio State Buckeyes took the lead in the final game to win the second run in 6:14.54. The Buckeyes led in 1:33.11 Ruslan Gaziev, followed by Hunter Armstrong (1:32.18), Alex Kuah (1:35.17) and Shaw Satterfield (1:34.08). 6:14.54 Buckeye was almost four seconds faster than their seed that came to the meeting.
The first race went to Texas A&M in 6:19.54, just half a second short of the starting time.