Florida senior, Matt Cole, the pre-meet favorite, leads all qualifiers in the 200m backstroke, qualifying first in 1:55.51. Only .01 of a second back is Minnesota's Alex Massura, as a mere eight-tenths of a second separates the top eight qualifiers.
Joey Faltraco, So. Carolina, is third (1:55.69), followed by Mike Jansen, Florida, at 1:55.79. Fifth through eighth are: Leonardo Costa, USC, 1:55.80; Matt Ulrickson, Texas, who won the 100 back last night, 1:56.12; Kris Souther, Arizona, 1:56.20; and Dan Shevchik, Harvard, 1:56.33.
B finalists are Dan Westcott, Stanford; Simon Thirsk, hawaii; Marc Lindsay, Georgia; Arunas Savickas, BYU; Ross Powells, Tennessee; Kirk Hampelman, Auburn, Beau Wiebel, Georgia; and tied for sixteenth, Randall Bal, Stanford, and Matt Allen, Arizona. Bal was in a swim-off in the 100 yesterday.
