By Phillip Whitten<\/p>\n
ATLANTA, March 23. FLYING high after the spectacular comeback victory by their women\u2019s team at last week\u2019s women\u2019s NCAA Championships, the Auburn Tigers roared in the prelims of Day One of the men\u2019s championships this morning at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n
Stanford and Arizona, which figure to challenge Auburn\u2019s bid for a fourth straight title, also swam well, but Auburn appears to have the depth to ward off any usurpers for their crown. Based on this morning\u2019s swimming events\u2014and without counting diving — Auburn is projected to have a 25-30 point margin over both its rivals on the first day. Both Auburn and Arizona have one diver ranked among the top eight.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it went down this morning:<\/p>\n
200 yard Freestyle Relay<\/b>
\nSwimming in the third and final heat, Stanford threw down the fastest qualifying time, a swift 1:16.76. Unheralded freshman Jason Dunforth led off for the Cardinal in 19.39, the fastest lead-off split of the morning, and the boys from Palo Alto never looked back. Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner followed with a blazing 18.58, the fastest split of all. Kyle Ransom (19.29) and Matt Crowe (19.50) delivered the coup de grace.<\/p>\n
Arizona, winning the second heat, qualified second in 1:17.01. Texas out-touched Auburn in heat #1, 1:17.50 to 1:17.52, as these two teams grabbed the third and fourth qualifying spots. Cal, another potential contender for the crown, was fifth in 1:18.39.<\/p>\n
It took 1:18.95 to make the A final, 1:19.65 to make B.<\/p>\n
500 yard Freestyle<\/b>
\nMichigan senior Peter Vanderkaay came to this meet looking to break Tom Dolan\u2019s American\/NCAA record of 4:08.75 set back in 1995. He won this event last year with history\u2019s second-fastest time, 4:09.82, and only the second sub-4:10 in history. Making this evening\u2019s swim even sweeter: Vanderkaay\u2019s younger brother, Alex, a Michigan sophomore, qualified eighth (4:17.33).<\/p>\n
Vanderkaay looked ready for his challenge tonight, qualifying first in 4:13.49. But there will be some pretty formidable competitors with gold medal plans of their own. First among these is USC\u2019s Larsen Jensen, Olympic silver medalist in the 1500 meters in 2004. Jensen even-split his prelim swim, clocking 4:14.57, just ahead of Georgia\u2019s Sebastien Roualt (4:14.71). USC\u2019s Ous Mellouli, who swam a 4:12.18 earlier in the season, qualified fifth (4:17.04) behind Texas frosh Mike Klueh (4:16.11)<\/p>\n
Southern Cal put three men in the A final, while Michigan had two. Among the top contenders, Stanford had one swimmer in the A final while Cal had one in the A and one in the B. Arizona had one swimmer make it into the B final, while Auburn was shut out.<\/p>\n
It took 4:17.33 to make the big final, 4:21.01 to make consols, a little slower than last year.<\/p>\n
200 yard IM<\/b>
\nThe top three teams each qualified two men for the championship final of the 200 IM, with Florida nabbing the two remaining slots. Auburn and Stanford also qualified two men each for the B final.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s Ryan Lochte looks to be ready to challenge his own NCAA record (1:41.72) and Michael Phelps\u2019 American record as he qualified first in 1:43.32. Arizona sophomore Adam Ritter followed in 1:44.15 while Auburn\u2019s Eric Shanteau (1:44.37) and James Wike (1:44.83) occupied the next two spots, just ahead of Arizona\u2019s Dave Rollins (1:44.93).<\/p>\n
It took 1:45.53 to make the A final, 1:46.54 to make B.<\/p>\n
50 yard Freestyle<\/b>
\nBoth Auburn and Arizona are famed for their sprint programs, and this morning\u2019s session showed why. The Tigers have three up (A final) and two down (B final), while Arizona qualified two up.<\/p>\n
Auburn freshman Cesar Cielo, a Brazilian import, took the top spot with a strong 19.20, just ahead of pre-meet favorite Cullen Jones, North Carolina State, at 19.27. Jones swam a nation-leading 19.07 earlier this year, just off the American record of 19.05.<\/p>\n
Arizona\u2019s Simon Burnett, recently arrived from the Commonwealth Games in Australia, showed that jet lag will be no problem, as he popped a 19.28.<\/p>\n
Cut-off times were 19.44 (A final) and 19.62 (consols), as 33swimmers cracked the once-sacrosanct 20-second barrier.<\/p>\n
400 yard Medley Relay<\/b>
\nArizona topped all qualifiers in the 400 yard medley relay with a strong 3:07.75, just ahead of Northwestern at 3:08.19. The Wildcats — Arizona variety — were paced by Nick Thoman (back 46.76), Ivan Barnes (52.75), Albert Subirats (45.30) and Nick Nilo (free, 42.94).<\/p>\n
Florida was third (3:09.21), with Auburn (3:09.53), Stanford (3:09.56) and Texas (3:09.59) were in hot pursuit.<\/p>\n
The fastest splits were turned in by Ryan Lochte, Florida (back, 45.28); Mike Alexandrov, Northwestern (breast, 52.52); Albert Subirats, Arizona (fly, 45.30) ; and Garrett Weber-Gale, Texas (free, 41.91).<\/p>\n
It took 3:10.78 to make the A final, 3:15.62 to make the B.<\/p>\n
1-meter Diving<\/b>
\nA s expected, Arizona State\u2019s Joona Puhakka qualified first, racking up 389.30 points, more than 26 ahead of second qualifier, Chris Colwill of Georgia. Auburn\u2019s Steven Segerlin was third this afternoon while Stanford\u2019s Dwight Dumais was ninth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phillip Whitten ATLANTA, March 23. FLYING high after the spectacular comeback victory by their women\u2019s team at last week\u2019s women\u2019s NCAA Championships, the Auburn Tigers roared in the prelims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n