By John Lohn
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, March 14. DURING the coming week, SwimmingWorldMagazine.com will preview the Men's NCAA Division I Championships to be held in Minneapolis, Minn., from March 15-17. Next, take a look at a preview of the IM events.
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200 Individual Medley
There was speculation during the regular season that Northwestern's Matt Grevers would contest the 200 IM at the NCAA Champs. Indeed, that is what he decided. Grevers is seeded seventh, but will make a run for the gold in a field that doesn't have a flat-out favorite. Grevers is slotted one spot behind teammate Mike Alexandrov, also capable of winning the event.
The top seed at 1:43.96 is Arizona's Adam Ritter, followed by Harvard's Geoff Rathgeber at 1:44.67. Then comes the Florida trio of Lucas Salatta, Shaune Fraser and Bradley Ally, who should score major points for the Gators and could challenge for the win. Stanford's Hongzhe Sun is the eighth seed, but also capable of prevailing.
400 Individual Medley
Like the shorter medley, this event is pretty wide open. Michigan's Alex Vanderkaay is the No. 1 seed with a time of 3:44.86, but is closely followed on the entry list by Virginia's Pat Mellors and Florida's Bradley Ally. The fourth seed, Texas' Michael Klueh, has the talent to finish ahead of the field and enters as the Big 12 Conference champ.