Men’s NCAA Division I Prelims, Day 2: Fast Times Are the Rule

By Phillip Whitten

ATLANTA, March 24. FAST times ruled in the prelims of the second day of competition at the men's NCAA Championships at Georgia Tech University.

Here's how it went down this morning:

200 yard medley relay
Arizona won the first heat in 1:25.86, with Texas second in 1:26.22. Auburn finished third in 1:26.59. Florida was fourth, 1:26.64, despite Ryan Lochte’s 21.26 leadoff backstroke leg.

Heat 2 featured an exciting three-team race with Stanford winning in 1:26.26. USC was second in 1:26.69 with Indiana clocking 1:26.82 for third.

Northwestern posted the fastest time of the morning with a 1:25.75 to win the third heat. Cal was second in 1:26.00.

It took a 1:26.69 to make the championship final, 1:29.96 to make consolations.

400 yaard individual medley
There were four heats of the 400 IM. Last year it took 3:48.49 to make the A final.

Stanford’s Keenan Newman won the first heat in 3:50.42.

Heat 2 was loaded, with Ryan Lochte, Alex Vanderkaay and Bradley Ally in the field. Vanderkaay took the fly out in 51.67, a tenth of a second ahead of Lochte. The Florida senior seized the lead in the backstroke, turning in 1:47.31(55.54 split), more than two seconds up on the field. The race tightened in the breaststroke, with Ally taking he lead at the 300 mark. Lochte came on in the final leg to win the heat in 3:46.13. Vanderkaay was second in 3:46.84 with Arizona State’s Nevo Gal, an Israeli import, third in 3:46.93. Ally was fourth.

Virginia’s Pat Mellors led through the first 350 yards of heat 3, only to see Georgia’s Sebastien Roualt catch him with 50 yards to go. The Frenchman sailed home to win in 3:46.40. Stephens was second in 3:47.70.

Stanford’s Tobias Oriwol was out first in the fly in heat 4 (51.97). But USC’s Ous Mellouli took over on the backstroke and took it the rest of the way to post 3:44.76, the fastest time of the morning.

It took a 3:47.70 to make the A final, 3:50.42 to make the B final..

100 yard butterfly
Oh what a lovely war the 100 fly will be tonight! In this morning’s prelims it took a 46.78 to make the A final, 47.29 to make the B.

Arizona’s Albert Subirats had the fastest time this morning, 46.11, with Michigan’s Davis Tarwater second at 46.16 and Cal’s Mike Cavic third at 46.27. Any one of the eight finalists could win tonight. Who will be hungriest?

200 yard freestyle
Texas sophomore Matt McGinnis was the surprise top qualifier in the 200 free. Taking the lead after the first 50 from NCAA record-holder, Simon Burnett of Arizona, he held on to post a 1:33.54, making him the eighth fastest performer all-time. Burnett touched in 1:33.94, the only other sub-1:34 effort.

Cal’s Dominik Meichtry was third in 1:34.19 with Michigan’s Peter Vanderkaay fourth in 1:34.63.

It took a 1:34.91 to make the A final, 1:36.12 to make B.

100 yard breaststroke
Arizona’s Dave Rollins, swimming in lane one in the fourth of five heats, was the surprise top qualifier in a quick 52.68, making him the seventh fastest performer of all time.

No one else was under 53 seconds as Cal’s Henrique Barbosa qualified second in 53.08.

It took 53.70 to make the championship final, 54.16 to make consols.

100 yard backstroke
There were five sub-47 second swims in the 100 back with defending champion Matt Grevers of Northwestern first at 47.33, followed by Auburn’s Doug Van Wie at 47.41.

Arizona qualified third and fourth, with Albert Subirats going 46.62 and Nick Thoman clocking 46.74. Harvard’s David Cromwell, whose age group coach was Dave Berkoff, was fifth fastest at 46.76.

It took a 47.28 to make the A final, 48.20 to swim in the consols.

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