Loaded 200 Free Will Be Can’t-Miss Race of Men’s NCAA Championships

Photos Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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Back in 2015, USC senior Christian Quintero won the NCAA title in the men’s 200 free in 1:32.03. Michigan’s Anders Nielsen was the only other man in that field to break 1:33. A little-known Indiana freshman named Blake Pieroni ended up finishing fourth in 1:33.29.

Since that day, 17 college swimmers have posted times faster than 1:32.03.

Seventeen.

Back in 2015, Simon Burnett’s U.S. Open record of 1:31.20 had survived for nine years, and now, six men have swum faster. Two men have swum under 1:30.

Townley Haas arrived on the collegiate scene in 2016 and promptly took down Burnett’s record with a 1:30.46 to win his first NCAA title in the 200 free. Two years later, Pieroni became the first man under 1:30 with a 1:29.63 relay leadoff, only to see Haas surpass that record two days later when he swam a 1:29.50 to capture his third straight national title in the event.

No one has broken 1:30 since Pieroni and Haas posted their boundary-redefining swims at last year’s NCAA championships in Minneapolis, but the 1:30-club does have two new members this season. The first, Cal senior Andrew Seliskar, swam a 1:30.86 at the Georgia Invite in late November, improving on his previous best of 1:31.28.

This year at NCAAs, Seliskar will swim the 200 free for the first time. Each of the previous three seasons, Seliskar has opted for the 400 IM on Friday at NCAAs, but his recent metamorphosis into a freestyler—including last summer’s national title in the 200-meter free and subsequent silver in the event behind Haas at the Pan Pacific Championships—made the switch a natural decision.

Also swimming under 1:31 this year was Dean Farris, who for the third straight year recorded an eye-popping 200 free at the Ivy League Championships. His times included a 1:31.56 as a freshman, 1:31.12 as a sophomore and 1:30.83 this season, the top time in the country so far.

But when the psych sheets for NCAAs came out, Farris was not in the 200 free. Farris opted to focus on the 100 back (where he is seeded third) and 100 free (seeded second) instead, with the 50 free as his third event.

To reiterate: The fastest swimmer in the country this season decided to pass on the 200 free. That’s how fast this event has become.

So Seliskar will be the top seed this week, followed by Missouri senior Mikel Schreuders, who had never broken 1:33 before this season but swam a 1:31.27 at the SEC championships. Texas freshman Drew Kibler, one of the best high school swimmers in the country in recent years who has improved his lifetime best from 1:33.30 to 1:32.20 so far this season.

Tennessee senior Joey Reilman (1:32.35) and Arizona State sophomore Grant House (1:32.38) hold the fifth and sixth seeds, respectively, and then there’s Haas, with a season-best time of 1:32.42 but undoubtedly capable of repeating last year’s 1:29 as he aims to become the first man in history to win four national titles in the 200 free.

Zach Apple finished third in the 200 free last year for Auburn, and after transferring to Indiana, he should score big points in the 200 free to help fill the void of the graduated Pieroni.

“It’s going to be an awesome race,” Apple said earlier this month. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. That final is going to be very fast. I can almost certainly say at least one of us is going to go under the American record.”

Two more swimmers return having swum 1:31s at last year’s NCAA championships, Indiana sophomore Mohamed Samy and Florida sophomore Khader Baqlah. Last season, it took 1:32.84 to finish in the top eight, and it’s very likely that this season, someone will swim a 1:32 in prelims and not make the A-final—just four years after only two men broke 1:33 for the entire meet.

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Since the 800 free relay was moved from the end of the Friday night session to Wednesday, teams have consistently loaded up that relay with their best swimmers to start the meet off strong, rather than resting swimmers from an extra 200 free on the middle day of the meet. That means that all of the aforementioned 200 free top seeds will be in action, plus plenty of others capable of splits in the 1:31-range.

For example, Harvard qualified an 800 free relay, so Farris will likely get his chance at a flat-start 200 free in the second of three heats. Also in heat two will be NC State, last year’s 800 free relay national champions. The Wolfpack lost Ryan Held from last year, but Andreas Vazaios led off in 1:31.32 and Justin Ress anchored in 1:30.77, and both return this season.

The top five seeds for the relay include Florida, Cal, Indiana, Missouri and Texas, so that means Baqlah and Maxime Rooney will be involved in Florida’s squad, and Cal will have both Seliskar and Bryce Mefford, another 200 free finalist from last year. Indiana will have Apple, Samy and possibly 100 breast American record-holder Ian Finnerty making a cameo appearance in freestyle. Finnerty anchored last year’s runner-up effort in 1:32.21.

Expect Schreuders to lead off for Missouri, and Haas could go first for Texas, likely to be followed in some order by Kibler, Austin Katz and Jeff Newkirk.

That’s a lot of firepower in action for the meet’s opening relay with the potential both to set up the overall team race and the meet’s most interesting individual event.

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Cara Asher-Neff

5 years ago

Grant Norgan will you be at this?

Ross Gardner

5 years ago

Alex Semchenko Chris Rousseau

Kay Stewart

5 years ago

Stuart Mathews