{"id":466718,"date":"2021-03-25T16:14:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T23:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=466718"},"modified":"2021-03-25T21:43:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T04:43:02","slug":"shaine-casas-lives-up-to-hype-with-ncaa-title-in-200-im-first-ever-for-texas-am-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/shaine-casas-lives-up-to-hype-with-ncaa-title-in-200-im-first-ever-for-texas-am-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaine Casas Lives Up to Hype With NCAA Title in 200 IM; First Ever for Texas A&M Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas A&M junior\u00a0Shaine Casas<\/strong>, 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Casas used his butterfly and backstroke prowess on the front end to grab the lead early, turning at 46.04 ahead of Texas freshman\u00a0Carson Foster\u00a0<\/strong>(46.37) and Missouri’s\u00a0Danny Kovac<\/strong> (46.78). Casas showed no weakness on breaststroke, splitting a 29.16, the third fastest in the field behind Cal’s\u00a0Hugo Gonzalez\u00a0<\/strong>(29.13) and Arizona’s\u00a0David Schlicht\u00a0<\/strong>(28.80) as Casas had a victory lap on the freestyle leg.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Destin Lasco\u00a0<\/strong>(1:40.01) who both scored best times and moved to eighth and ninth all-time in the event.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Texas’ Foster had a best time in fourth at 1:40.99 ahead of Georgia Tech senior Caio Pumputis\u00a0<\/strong>(1:41.79).<\/p>\n

Arizona’s Schlicht (1:41.82), Missouri’s Kovac (1:42.11) and Georgia’s Javier Acevedo\u00a0<\/strong>(1:42.91) also swam in the championship final.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

All-Time Rankings:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 1:38.13,\u00a0Caeleb Dressel<\/strong>, Florida, 2018<\/li>\n
  2. 1:38.14,\u00a0Andrew Seliskar<\/strong>, California, 2019<\/li>\n
  3. 1:38.95,\u00a0Shaine Casas<\/strong>, Texas A&M, 2020<\/li>\n
  4. 1:39.35,\u00a0Andreas Vazaios<\/strong>, NC State, 2019<\/li>\n
  5. 1:39.38,\u00a0David Nolan<\/strong>, Stanford, 2015<\/li>\n
  6. 1:39.54,\u00a0Jan Switkowski<\/strong>, Florida, 2018<\/li>\n
  7. 1:39.63,\u00a0John Shebat<\/strong>, Texas, 2019<\/li>\n
  8. 1:39.99,\u00a0Hugo Gonzalez<\/strong>, California, 2021<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  9. 1:40.01,\u00a0Destin Lasco<\/strong>, California, 2021<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  10. 1:40.04,\u00a0Will Licon<\/strong>, Texas, 2016<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n