Top 5 Races to Watch at Men’s MAC Championships

Photo Courtesy: Missouri State Athletics

By Andy Ross, Swimming World College Intern

The last weekend of conference championships will get underway this week. The Men’s MAC Championships will be held in Geneva, Ohio at the Spire Institute March 4-7. The Missouri State Bears won their first Mid-American Conference title last season and look to make it two-in-a-row in Geneva this week. There will be plenty of fast racing this week, but here are 5 races you will definitely not want to miss.

*Due to the multiple entries on the 2015 MAC Psych Sheet, it is unclear of what exactly all the swimmers are swimming, so a lot of the races are subject to change.

100 Breast

The 100 breast this year is almost completely wide open across the field. Two-time defending champion Mike Fisher of Eastern Michigan is seeded 10^th, leaving some breathing room for the rest of the competitors. The top seed is Freshman Itai De La Vega from Buffalo at 55.11. Behind him is Isaac Springer (Missouri State) at 55.58, and Hutch Blackstone (Miami) at 55.66. Further down the psych sheet is senior Joe Morris from Ball State who sat out last season. Uldis Tazans (Missouri State), Steve Russo (Miami), and Calvin Kolar (Southern Illinois) also are all seeded with 55s leading this race. It should be a nail biter.

800 Free Relay

Missouri State has won this race the last two years but got some pressure at the Louisville Invite in November with Southern Illinois. The two teams swam side by side, stroke for stroke the whole race and sit atop the MAC currently. Expect Eastern Michigan and Buffalo to also challenge this race, as they’re seeded just three seconds behind the top two. This will be a thrilling race on the meet’s first night. Expect it to come down to the wire.

100 Free

The race should come down to the top three seeded swimmers. Defending champion Uvis Kalnins (Missouri State) is first at 43.99 followed by Joe Baumgartner (Miami) and Till Pallmann (Southern Illnois). These three swimmers could be vying for Swimmer of the Meet and this race could end up being the deciding factor.

200 IM

The only two swimmers who made the NCAA Championships in this conference a year ago are in this event and seeded first and second. Again, due to the multiple-event entries it is unclear what exactly Uvis Kalnins and Paul Le will be swimming, but look for Kacper Cwiek of Missouri State to make some noise in the conference in this event. Cwiek came to Missouri State in January and is third behind Kalnins and Le and could challenge those two at the top. Behind those three, it is pretty wide open in terms of who will fill out the remaining five slots.

100 Fly

This race is another wide-open one due to the graduation of Buffalo defending champion Mike Dugan. Top seed is Missouri State senior Vitalii Baryshok at 48.82 followed by Oliver Patrouch (Buffalo), Lucas Aquino (Southern Illinois), and 200 fly defending champ Krzysztof Gilski (Eastern Michigan). There are plenty more worthy names down the line, but this is one of those events where it is too hard to see a clear favorite right now.

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Pablo Valedon

9 years ago

Let’s go bull’s!