2021 NCAA Men’s Swimming Championships: Virginia Tech, Louisville, Virginia Continuing Historic Year For ACC Swimming

Photo Courtesy: NCAA Media

2021 NCAA Men’s Swimming Championships: Virginia Tech, Louisville, Virginia Continuing Historic Year For ACC Swimming

Last week at the 2021 NCAA women’s meet, a number of schools had their best finish ever, including Virginia, NC State, Alabama and Kentucky. This week at the men’s meet, some of the usual suspects are out to play up top, with some schools having historic seasons like Georgia, Virginia Tech and Louisville.

Georgia has only been top four once – a third place in 1997, and the Bulldogs are very much in line to finish fourth at the end of the meet tonight. We have talked a lot about Georgia this season – the Bulldogs nearly took down Florida at SECs, won their first individual NCAA title with Jake Magahey in four years, and have a good mix of senior leadership in Javier Acevedo and Camden Murphy mixed with a good core group of underclassmen in Magahey, Luca Urlando and Ian Grum.

Antani Ivanov. Photo Courtesy: NCAA Media

Then there is Virginia Tech, who has been as high as 18th in the last two decades, all the way back in 2012 when the team scored 55 points in Federal Way. The Hokies already have 60 points, and six additional swimmers in finals tonight, meaning they will blow their best season out of the water in Sergio Lopez’s third year as head coach.

The Hokies have already had their first swimming A-finalist this weekend in four years with Antani Ivanov getting sixth in the 100 fly last night, and will have two more All-Americans tonight – Ivanov in the 200 fly and Charles Coll Marti in the 200 breast. An additional four made B-Finals in Sam Tornqvist, Youssef Ramadan, AJ Pouch and Dylan Eichberg. It is also worth noting that Ivanov has a chance to be Virginia Tech’s first ever NCAA champion in men’s swimming and diving.

Do the Hokies have enough for a top ten finish? They are 42 points behind in-state rival Virginia, who currently sits 10th, and is chasing a historic finish of their own – the Cavaliers haven’t been higher than tenth since 2011, and certainly have the numbers in their favor to get past conference rival NC State.

The margin may be too big for Virginia Tech, but regardless the Hokies are having an incredible season and should be coming home with a record finish.

Louisville also celebrated its first ever relay NCAA title last night in the 200 medley as the Cardinals are currently in sixth, eight points behind Indiana to potentially match a program high, although the Hoosiers will have four swimmers back tonight compared to Louisville’s two.

“It means a lot. We made history, not only this year winning ACCs, but we made it again being the first relay to win NCAAs, which is awesome,” Mitchell Whyte said of the medley relay.

Last week was a truly historic one for many of the women’s programs in the ACC, and that trend is continuing this week with Virginia Tech, Louisville and Virginia.

Max McHugh. Photo Courtesy: Luke Jamroz Photography

Minnesota won its first individual NCAA title since 1964 last night in the 100 breaststroke with junior Max McHugh taking the 100 breaststroke win for the Gophers. The Minnesota women have had many national champions recently, including diver Sarah Bacon winning both springboards last week, as well as Jillian Tyler and Haley Spencer sweeping the breaststrokes in 2011, and Kierra Smith winning the 200 in 2015. But the men haven’t had an individual champion since 1996 when Pat Bogart won the 1m diving event, and not in swimming since Walt Richardson won the 100 fly in the lead-up to the first Tokyo Olympics 57 years ago.

“It means everything. I came to Minnesota to train with my brother (Conner). Man, it means everything that I could do it for the program and for my brother,” McHugh said last night of winning the 100 breast. “He’s been my training partner for 12 years. It’s something special for the program and for my family. It has been my goal all along. I haven’t realized what I have done just yet but it will be good once I get home and get to show them the trophy.

“I made sure to face time my family after I warmed down. It means a lot to me but it means just as much to them as well so I’m glad I got to bring it home for Minnesota.”

Texas A&M’s Shaine Casas also brought home the first ever NCAA title for the Aggie men’s program in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke, and the Aggies are in line for their first top ten finish since 1999 as anything higher than 10th would be their highest finish in school history on the men’s side.

“It is incredible. It is definitely an honor to be the first and I hope I won’t be the last,” Shaine Casas said after winning the 200 IM. “I wanted to open the door and show everyone that they can do it, too. The time is cool, but the real thing is getting the job done and taking the gold. It is double the reward (after double the wait with last year’s canceled meet). I felt like I was ready last year … it was even better getting it this time around.”

Elsewhere in the meet:

Cal has three of the four top seeds for finals tonight, but will it be enough to close the 42 point gap behind Texas? The Longhorns may have the upper hand here with diving in their favor, but it will certainly be an exciting session to close out the NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships in Greensboro.

Louisville’s Nick Albiero has a chance to win Louisville’s fourth NCAA title in men’s swimming in the 200 butterfly, but leads a host of players that will make the race interesting in Georgia’s Urlando and Murphy, Texas’ Sam Pomajevich, Cal’s Trenton Julian and Virginia Tech’s Ivanov.

Reece Whitley will have a lot of eyes on him as he takes aim at Will Licon’s American record in the 200 breaststroke and Destin Lasco will try to hold off Casas to become the second freshman to win an event this weekend in Greensboro. Casas will also put himself in the running for swimmer of the meet if he is to win the 200 back and Ryan Hoffer is to win the 100 freestyle, giving each of them three wins for the weekend.

Ups, Downs including platform diving

California 8, 2
Texas 7, 5
Georgia 3, 3
Ohio State 3, 2
Purdue 3, 0
Virginia Tech 2, 4
Florida 2, 2
Indiana 1, 4
Virginia 1, 3
Louisville 1, 1
Texas A&M 1, 1
Stanford 1, 1
LSU 1, 1
Arizona 1, 0
Alabama 1, 0
Miami 1, 0
Georgia Tech 1, 0
Minnesota 1, 0
Utah 1, 0
Missouri 0, 2
Tennessee 0, 2
Kentucky 0, 2
Michigan 0, 1
Pittsburgh 0, 1
Southern Cal 0, 1
Wisconsin 0, 1
West Virginia 0, 1

Platform:

 Event 20  Men Platform Diving
==================================================================
         Meet: M 548.90  3/26/2011 Nick McCrory, Duke
         Pool: P 515.20  2/23/2013 Nick McCrory, Duke
    Name                 Year School               Seed    Prelims        
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Windle, Jordan         SR Texas                  NP     479.60  
  2 Loschiavo, Brandon     SR Purdue                 NP     461.45  
  3 Bramley, Ben           JR Purdue                 NP     389.30  
  4 Cooper, Zach           SR Miami                  NP     387.55  
  5 Fielding, Jake         JR Ohio St                NP     376.75  
  6 McDivitt, Luke         SO Utah                   NP     370.00  
  7 Yost, Lyle             SO Ohio St                NP     367.65  
  8 Siler, Jacob           SR Ohio St                NP     362.85  

  9 Harness, Andrew        SO Texas                  NP     356.35  
 10 Capobianco, Andrew     JR Indiana                NP     356.05  
 11 Zhang, Danny           JR Kentucky               NP     355.50  
 12 Hattie, Bryden         FR Tennessee              NP     350.90  
 13 Abramowicz, Tazman     JR Wisconsin              NP     338.95  
 14 Hernandez, Juan        SR LSU                    NP     337.75  
 15 Garcia, Leonardo       SO Florida                NP     328.20  
 16 Vigran, Noah           JR Stanford               NP     327.15

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