NCAA Men’s Championships: Jordan Crooks’ 18.25 Leads 50 Free Prelims

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA Men’s Championships: Jordan Crooks’ 18.25 Leads 50 Free Prelims

Jordan Crooks has led the 50 freestyers all season. He’ll add the top seed in the NCAA final to that list of domination.

The Tennessee sophomore led the way in the morning prelims at the University of Minnesota with a time of 18.25, swimming away from the field in the final heat of seven in the morning. He led the nation this year with a time of 17.93 seconds.

Joining him in the A final are a pair of Cal swimmers, with Bjorn Seeliger second in 18.46 and Jack Alexy fifth in 18.77. Defending champion Brooks Curry earned his lane in the A final in fourth in 18.72, a spot behind Florida’s Josh Liendo. It’ll be four from the SEC with Gui Caribe of Tennessee also in there. Arizona State’s Jack Dolan and Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan tied for seventh.

Seeliger was the silver medalist last year with Crooks and Virginia’s Matt Brownstead tying for third. (Brownstead found himself out of the circle-seeded heats this year but made it back in 15th place.)

Ramadan won the first circle-seeded heat in 18.87, .02 up on NC State’s Noah Henderson, who tied with Indiana’s Van Mathias for ninth. Seeliger blitzed the next-to-last heat in 18.46 to best Liendo.

On the team front, Texas is without a finalist. Arizona State missed out with Jonny Kulow tied for 17th; he’s even with Florida’s Macguire McDuff, and the Gators also had Alberto Mestre and Adam Chaney tie for 19th. (Chaney won the B final last year.) Cal snuck Liam Bell into the B final. It took 19.04 to get a second swim.

Event 5  Men 50 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
         NCAA: N 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
         Meet: M 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
     American: A 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
   U. S. Open: O 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
         Pool: P 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
    Name                 Year School               Seed    Prelims        
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Crooks, Jordan         SO Tennessee           17.93      18.25  
     r:+0.62  8.81         18.25 (9.44)
  2 Seeliger, Bjorn        JR California          18.87      18.46  
     r:+0.65  8.80         18.46 (9.66)
  3 Liendo, Josh           FR Florida             18.35      18.54  
     r:+0.60  8.93         18.54 (9.61)
  4 Curry, Brooks          SR LSU                 18.94      18.72  
     r:+0.61  8.93         18.72 (9.79)
  5 Alexy, Jack            SO California          19.13      18.77  
     r:+0.62  9.03         18.77 (9.74)
  6 Santos, Guilherme      FR Tennessee           18.79      18.81  
     r:+0.61  9.04         18.81 (9.77)
  7 Ramadan, Youssef       JR VT                  18.82      18.87  
     r:+0.56  9.17         18.87 (9.70)
  7 Dolan, Jack            SR ASU                 18.86      18.87  
     r:+0.66  9.08         18.87 (9.79)

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