Auburn Secures Second Strong Prelim Day at NCAA Division I Championships

By Jason Marsteller

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, March 16. AUBURN wound up securing 11 total individual swims during finals (six up, five down) to lead the second day of preliminary qualifying at the men's NCAA Division I Championships in Minneapolis, Minn.

Meanwhile, Texas owns the second-most with nine swims (four up, five down), while Arizona (seven up, one down) and Stanford (six up, two down) each have eight swims.

Overall, 23 different institutions earned finals swims on the day.

200 medley relay
Texas' foursome of Tom Sacco, Tyler O'Halloran, Rick Berens and Garrett Weber-Gale clocked the fastest prelim time with a 1:24.74, while Arizona's team of Albert Subirats, Ivan Barnes, Nick Nilo and Darian Townsend placed second in 1:24.90. Northwestern's quartet of Matt Grevers, Mike Alexandrov, Kyle Bubolz and Bruno Barbic finished third in 1:25.14.

Auburn, Tennessee, Stanford, SMU and Minnesota will join them in the top eight.

As for the top splits, Subirats touched in 20.66 on the backstroke, while Alabama's Vlad Polyakov took the top breaststroke with a time of 23.49 en route to a 10th-place 1:26.73 for his team. Bubolz posted the best butterfly leg with a time of 20.41, while Apostol Tsagkarakis of Alabama brought it home the quickest with an 18.78 freestyle anchor.

400 IM
Michigan and Virginia will look to score big points in the 400 IM as both went two up. Michigan placed Alex Vanderkaay (3:44.81) and Dane Grenda (3:45.61), while Florida added Lucas Salatta (3:45.77) and Bradley Ally (3:46.25) to the championship heat.

Virginia's Pat Mellors touched first in 3:44.61, while Southern California's Vanni Mangoni (3:45.04), Texas' Caleb McDermott (3:45.58) and LSU's Julius Gloeckner (3:45.77) will comprise the rest of the big final.

Notably, Auburn did not have any one compete in the event.

100 butterfly
Auburn made a big move in the 100 fly by putting three swimmers into the A final: Alexei Puninski (46.19), Jakob Andkjaer (46.54) and Matt Targett (46.60). Meanwhile, Stanford grabbed two top spots with Ben Wildman-Tobriner (46.23) and Jason Dunford (46.35) making the big final.

Arizona's Albert Subirats placed first in 45.84, while Northwestern's Kyle Bubolz (46.18) and California's Patrick O'Neil (46.41) make up the rest of the top eight.

Through the second individual event of prelims, Michigan owns five finals swims (two up, three down), with California having four (one up, three down) and Auburn (three up), Florida (two up, one down) and Texas (one up, two down) each with three point-scoring swims.

200 freestyle
The Pacific 10 dominated the 200 freestyle with the top seven seeds heading into finals. Arizona, showing shines of a potential American record run at the 800 freestyle relay, placed four swimmers into the championship heat with Nick Nilo (1:34.21), Darian Townsend (1:34.26), Jean Basson (1:34.59) and Adam Ritter (1:34.60) earning a shot at the title.

California's Dominik Meichtry recorded the top time in 1:34.00, while Stanford's Shaun Phillips (1:34.18) and Andy Grant (1:34.35) also made it to the big final. Texas' Dave Walters will join the Pac-10 party after clocking an eighth-place 1:34.80.

Through the 200 free, three teams have six swims in finals as Arizona (five up, one down), Florida (two up, four down) and Michigan (two up, four down) each lead the field. California (two up, three down), Stanford (four up, one down) and Texas (two up, three down) each have five swims.

Also of note, Binghamton's David Holmes became the first America East swimmer to represent his conference at NCAAs with a 22nd-place 1:36.23.

100 breaststroke
Stanford went two up, one down in the 100 breast as Paul Kornfeld (52.60) and Keenan Newman (52.88) took spots in the big final and Nate Cass (53.27) placed in the consolation heat.

Alabama's Vlad Polyakov became the fifth-fastest swimmer in the history of the event with a top time of 52.41, which also stands as the 10th-best time ever.

Texas' Tyler O'Halloran (52.61), Northwestern's Mike Alexandrov (52.69), SMU's Alex Hetland (52.93), Arizona's Ivan Barnes (53.10) and Auburn's Jonathan Roberts (53.13) will make up the rest of the championship heat.

Stanford jumped into the lead with eight night swims (six up, two down), while three teams have seven swims through the 100 breast: Arizona (six up, one down), Auburn (four up, three down) and Michigan (two up, five down).

100 backstroke
Auburn picked up another big event with two up and two down in the 100 back. Bryan Lundquist (46.77) and James Wike (46.87) will compete for the title, while Scott Goodrich (47.08) and Cesar Cielo (47.56) made the consolation heat.

Arizona's Albert Subirats clocked the top time in 45.68, while Indiana's Ben Hesen (46.14), Texas' Tom Sacco (46.36), Northwestern's Matt Grevers (46.37), Tennessee's Brad Boswell (46.72) and California's David Russell (46.83) each made the A final.

At the end of the second day of prelims, Auburn secured 11 total swims (six up, five down), while Texas (four up, five down) is second with nine and Arizona (seven up, one down) and Stanford (six up, two down) will be in chase mode with eight each.

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