Column by John Lohn<\/i><\/p>\n
CRANBURY, New Jersey, March 15. ONE of my recent assignments for Swimming World was to pick the order of finish for the upcoming NCAA Men's Championships, slated for Ohio State in a little less than two weeks. Ultimately, the championship pick was Texas, with Arizona, Auburn, Stanford and California rounding out the top five. The sixth through tenth spots were selected to go to Michigan, Florida, Virginia, Georgia and Ohio State.<\/p>\n
To be honest, with these picks being required a couple months back to meet deadline requirements, I like Georgia ahead of Virginia and could see Ohio State moving ahead of the Cavaliers as well. We'll see soon. But in terms of the top seven finishes, I'll stick with my guns, believing that Texas is too loaded and Arizona will recover from a subpar showing at the Pac-10 Champs with a stellar showing.<\/p>\n
This week, since this is my last column before the NCAA Champs get under way, I'll take a shot at picking the top three individual finishers in each event. It won't be an easy task in a number of events, but why not give it a run. Hey, it should make for some lively debate.<\/p>\n
50 Freestyle<\/b>
\nJimmy Feigen, Texas
\nNathan Adrian, California
\nGideon Louw, Auburn
\n Comment: Just a hunch that Feigen captures first NCAA title.<\/p>\n
100 Freestyle<\/b>
\nNathan Adrian, California
\nJimmy Feigen, Texas
\nGideon Louw, Auburn
\n Comment: A reversal of the finish in the 50 free between Adrian and Feigen.<\/p>\n
200 Freestyle<\/b>
\nRicky Berens, Texas
\nShaune Fraser, Florida
\nJean Basson, Arizona
\n Comment: Texas' Dave Walters is a wild card in this one. Fraser is the reigning champ.<\/p>\n
500 Freestyle<\/b>
\nJean Basson, Arizona
\nScott Jostes, Texas
\nTroy Prinsloo, Georgia
\n Comment: South African defends his title with Jostes delivering strong showing for Longhorns.<\/p>\n
1650 Freestyle<\/b>
\nChad La Tourette, Stanford
\nTroy Prinsloo, Georgia
\nJackson Wilcox, Texas
\n Comment: Top two appear in command over rest of the field.<\/p>\n
100 Backstroke<\/b>
\nHill Taylor, Texas
\nEugene Godsoe, Stanford
\nPascal Wollach, Auburn
\n Comment: Taylor rises from third in 2009 to take title.<\/p>\n
200 Backstroke<\/b>
\nTyler Clary, Michigan
\nCory Chitwood, Arizona
\nOmar Pinzon, Florida
\n Comment: After year away while recovering from injury, Chitwood has big showing.<\/p>\n
100 Breaststroke<\/b>
\nDamir Dugonjic, California
\nAdam Klein, Auburn
\nMarcus Titus, Arizona
\n Comment: Dugonjic not winning would be a surprise.<\/p>\n
200 Breaststroke<\/b>
\nScott Spann, Texas
\nSean Mahoney, California
\nAdam Klein, Auburn
\n Comment: Thinking Spann performs like the 2008 Olympic finalist he was.<\/p>\n
100 Butterfly<\/b>
\nTyler McGill, Auburn
\nTom Shields, California
\nEugene Godsoe, Stanford
\n Comment: Absence of Austin Staab opens the door for competitive battle for top spot.<\/p>\n
200 Butterfly<\/b>
\nMark Dylla, Georgia
\nShaune Fraser, Florida
\nDan Madwed, Michigan
\n Comment: Dylla and Fraser switch positions from last year's finish.<\/p>\n
200 Individual Medley<\/b>
\nTyler Clary, Michigan
\nRicky Berens, Texas
\nShaune Fraser, Florida
\n Comment: Wolverines standout takes the first of three victories.<\/p>\n
400 Individual Medley<\/b>
\nTyler Clary, Michigan
\nGal Nevo, Georgia Tech
\nJack Brown, Arizona
\n Comment: Went with the chalk. Feel good about Clary, but open after that.<\/p>\n
200 Freestyle Relay<\/b>
\nAuburn
\nCalifornia
\nTexas
\n Comment: Auburn has been dominant in the sprints for years and there's no reason to believe this season will be any different.<\/p>\n
400 Freestyle Relay<\/b>
\nTexas
\nAuburn
\nCalifornia
\n Comment: The Longhorns close out their NCAA championship with win in last relay.<\/p>\n
800 Freestyle Relay<\/b>
\nTexas
\nArizona
\nMichigan
\n Comment: Arizona makes a big jump from eighth seed, which is misleading.<\/p>\n
200 Medley Relay<\/b>
\nAuburn
\nCalifornia
\nStanford
\n Comment: Sprint relays have been domain of the Tigers.<\/p>\n
400 Medley Relay<\/b>
\nCalifornia
\nTexas
\nAuburn
\n Comment: Very tough relay to call. Won't be surprised by anything that goes down here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Column by John Lohn CRANBURY, New Jersey, March 15. ONE of my recent assignments for Swimming World was to pick the order of finish for the upcoming NCAA Men's Championships,<\/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-23771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n