Shaine Casas Lives Up to Hype With NCAA Title in 200 IM; First Ever for Texas A&M Men

shaine-casas
Photo Courtesy: Luke Jamroz Photography

Texas A&M junior Shaine Casas, who has been dubbed as one of the rising stars in the swimming community for the last 18 months, finally won himself an NCAA title in the 200 IM with a 1:39.53. Casas had been one of the top guys to watch at the 2020 meet before the meet was cancelled but has lived up to expectations and finally has something to show for all the hype surrounding him in short course yards.

Casas used his butterfly and backstroke prowess on the front end to grab the lead early, turning at 46.04 ahead of Texas freshman Carson Foster (46.37) and Missouri’s Danny Kovac (46.78). Casas showed no weakness on breaststroke, splitting a 29.16, the third fastest in the field behind Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez (29.13) and Arizona’s David Schlicht (28.80) as Casas had a victory lap on the freestyle leg.

Casas actually lost his cap on the final breast to freestyle exchange but it did not faze him as he won in the end at 1:39.53 ahead of Cal’s duo of Gonzalez (1:39.99) and Destin Lasco (1:40.01) who both scored best times and moved to eighth and ninth all-time in the event.

“It is incredible. It is definitely an honor to be the first and I hope I won’t be the last,” Shaine Casas said after the race. “I wanted to open the door and show everyone that they can do it, too. The time is cool, but the real thing is getting the job done and taking the gold. It is double the reward (after double the wait with last year’s canceled meet). I felt like I was ready last year … it was even better getting it this time around.”

For Lasco, he came in to this meet at 1:45 for a best and he had the top seeded prelims swim from heat 1.

Texas’ Foster had a best time in fourth at 1:40.99 ahead of Georgia Tech senior Caio Pumputis (1:41.79).

Arizona’s Schlicht (1:41.82), Missouri’s Kovac (1:42.11) and Georgia’s Javier Acevedo (1:42.91) also swam in the championship final.

This is Texas A&M’s first ever NCAA title in men’s swimming and diving as the women have won a few individual titles already.

All-Time Rankings:

  1. 1:38.13, Caeleb Dressel, Florida, 2018
  2. 1:38.14, Andrew Seliskar, California, 2019
  3. 1:38.95, Shaine Casas, Texas A&M, 2020
  4. 1:39.35, Andreas Vazaios, NC State, 2019
  5. 1:39.38, David Nolan, Stanford, 2015
  6. 1:39.54, Jan Switkowski, Florida, 2018
  7. 1:39.63, John Shebat, Texas, 2019
  8. 1:39.99, Hugo Gonzalez, California, 2021
  9. 1:40.01, Destin Lasco, California, 2021
  10. 1:40.04, Will Licon, Texas, 2016

 Event 4  Men 200 Yard IM
=========================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:38.13  2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
         Meet: M 1:38.14  3/28/2019 Andrew Seliskar, California
     American: A 1:38.13  2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
   U. S. Open: O 1:38.13  2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
         Pool: P 1:40.61  3/25/2021 Destin Lasco, California
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Casas, Shaine          JR TAMU              1:40.74    1:39.53P  20  
    r:+0.62  21.15        46.04 (24.89)
        1:15.20 (29.16)     1:39.53 (24.33)
  2 Gonzalez, Hugo         JR California        1:40.94    1:39.99P  17  
    r:+0.66  21.74        46.85 (25.11)
        1:15.98 (29.13)     1:39.99 (24.01)
  3 Lasco, Destin          FR California        1:40.61    1:40.01P  16  
    r:+0.68  21.79        46.82 (25.03)
        1:16.21 (29.39)     1:40.01 (23.80)
  4 Foster, Carson         FR Texas             1:41.34    1:40.99   15  
    r:+0.66  21.78        46.37 (24.59)
        1:15.97 (29.60)     1:40.99 (25.02)
  5 Pumputis, Caio         SR GT                1:41.34    1:41.79   14  
    r:+0.64  21.71        47.22 (25.51)
        1:16.71 (29.49)     1:41.79 (25.08)
  6 Schlicht, David        SO Arizona           1:42.21    1:41.82   13  
    r:+0.65  22.39        48.23 (25.84)
        1:17.03 (28.80)     1:41.82 (24.79)
  7 Kovac, Danny           JR Missouri          1:42.21    1:42.11   12  
    r:+0.61  21.13        46.78 (25.65)
        1:16.47 (29.69)     1:42.11 (25.64)
  8 Acevedo, Javi          SR Georgia           1:41.72    1:42.91   11  
    r:+0.63  22.78        48.26 (25.48)
        1:17.79 (29.53)     1:42.91 (25.12)
 
                        === Consolation Final ===                        
 
  9 Mefford, Bryce         SR California        1:42.30    1:41.86    9  
    r:+0.61  21.87        46.59 (24.72)
        1:17.11 (30.52)     1:41.86 (24.75)
 10 Foster, Jake           SO Texas             1:42.53    1:42.17    7  
    r:+0.64  22.14        48.19 (26.05)
        1:17.22 (29.03)     1:42.17 (24.95)
 11 Delakis, Paul          SR Ohio St           1:42.73    1:42.21    6  
    r:+0.67  22.59        48.45 (25.86)
        1:17.90 (29.45)     1:42.21 (24.31)
 12 Vines, Braden          JR Texas             1:43.13    1:42.71    5  
    r:+0.59  22.58        48.57 (25.99)
        1:17.75 (29.18)     1:42.71 (24.96)
 13 Carr, Daniel           SR California        1:42.69    1:42.73    4  
    r:+0.63  22.23        47.63 (25.40)
        1:17.69 (30.06)     1:42.73 (25.04)
 14 Whitley, Reece         JR California        1:43.07    1:43.30    3  
    r:+0.73  22.75        49.04 (26.29)
        1:18.24 (29.20)     1:43.30 (25.06)
 15 Corbeau, Caspar        SO Texas             1:42.73    1:43.85    2  
    r:+0.69  22.22        48.99 (26.77)
        1:18.30 (29.31)     1:43.85 (25.55)
 16 Hillis, Dillon         JR Florida           1:43.00    1:44.18    1  
    r:+0.65  22.44        49.12 (26.68)
        1:18.82 (29.70)     1:44.18 (25.36)
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 4                  
 
  1. California                        159 
  2. Texas                             112
  3. Florida                           104 
  4. Georgia                            87
  5. Texas A&M                          80 
  6. NC State                           61
  7. Arizona                            41 
  8. Indiana                            36
  9. Louisville                         34 
 10. Virginia                           32
 10. Alabama                            32 
 12. Stanford                           29
 13. Virginia Tech                      24 
 14. Michigan                           22
 15. Missouri                           16 
 16. Georgia Tech                       14
 16. Purdue                             14 
 18. Ohio St                            12
 19. Notre Dame                          9 
 20. Penn St                             8
 21. Florida St                          4
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