College Swimming Roundup

Top Swims from the NCAA Weekend

Author

SWIM NERD
October 04, 2022

COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

  • Sub-20 50 Freestylers: By my count (and not counting intrasquads), there were 5 sub-20 50 Frees this weekend. Jordan Crooks led the way with a 19.3 for Tennessee, with VT's Youssef Ramadan, Georgia's Dillon Downing, freshly minted D1 Queens's Matej Dusa, and ASU's Jack Dolan joining the fun. Josh Liendo (UF), Alberto Mestre (UF), and Miles Simon (Howard) also dipped under in an abbreviated meet schedule last week. If what we're seeing through the first weekend of October is indicative of what this season is going to look like going forward, it's going to be a FAST year in college swimming.

  • Rhyan White Maintaining Momentum: White looks primed this season after winning two medals at World Championships this summer. Her initial dual meet offering included two Alabama pool records with a 52.68 100 Back and a 1:51.81 200 Back that would have scored points at NCAAs last year already. She rounded her meet out with a 24.99 50 Back relay split and a 1:59.98 200 IM win.

  • Leon Marchand and Grant House, the Best 1-2 Duo in the NCAA: I'm not sure this is even arguable at this point. Arizona State traveled to Georgia this weekend. Friday was a relay and odd-distance meet, then Saturday Mizzou joined up for a standard double dual. This was the couple days in the office for the sophomore and fifth-year (these were all wins):

    • House - Friday 19.69 200 MR anchor, 48.52 100 IM split, 19.40 200 FR split; Saturday 18.98 200 MR anchor, 1:34.54 200 Free, 43.91 100 Free, 43.41 400 FR leadoff.

    • Marchand - Friday 52.59 100 Breast split, 2:41.97 300 IM, 1:24.25 150 Breast; Saturday 1:43.21 200 Fly, 1:57.67 200 Breast, 1:44.32 200 IM, 42.64 400 FR anchor.

  • Betsy Wizard, Making a Great First Impression: Arkansas kept it closer than expected with star-studded Alabama, and Wizard's meet is a big reason why. The freshman from England has some decent long course chops, but showed a quick transition to the short pool with a 1:46.35 200 Free and a 53.47 100 Fly - both good enough for wins. She wrapped her meet up with a 48.88 400 FR split to lead an upset win.

🏊🏼 RELAY OF THE WEEK 🏊‍♀️

UNC Men's 200 Medley Relay: 1:27.77

  • Walker Davis - 22.41 Back

  • Dylan Citta - 24.35 Breast

  • Boyd Poelke - 21.08 Fly

  • Tomas Sungaila - 19.93 Free

UNC hasn't been nationally relevant for a while - which is why this one stuck out to me. A couple teams went faster on the weekend, but UNC debuted this season a full second faster than the same meet last year led by a strong middle (breast/fly). UNC Head Coach Mark Gangloff was an assistant at Mizzou when they were putting up very competitive medley relays and, of course, he's also an Olympian and former AR holder. He clearly understands what it takes to be successful.

🏊🏽‍♂️ MEET OF THE WEEK 🏊🏼

Arizona State vs Georgia vs Mizzou

This one gets the nod more out of the quality of overall swims than competitiveness of the team scores - though Georgia did make it a closer affair on the men's side than I expected.

Some highlights:

  • Marchand and House's performances, detailed above.

  • Jake Magahey taking on the dirty 1000/200 Free double and managing to stick with House in the 200. Jake is my favorite to win the 500 Free this year.

  • Marchand took the W in the 200 Fly, but Luca Urlando and Mizzou freshman Clement Secchi both grabbed 1:44s behind him. Urlando and Secchi also went 46s in the 100.

  • Abigail McCulloh of Georgia with a strong 9:46/4:47 distance double.

  • ASU and UGA both almost getting 3x400 FR teams under 3:00 - talk about depth there! UGA had eleven (11) sub-45 splits, while ASU had ten (10).

🏊🏽‍♂️ WEEKEND PREVIEW 🏊🏼

The biggest meet this upcoming week is the SMU Classic, which recently has resulted in the fastest times for a fall meet this side of midseason invites. This year the Mustangs host Louisville, Miami, Michigan, Mizzou, and USC.

Of the other top-tier D1 teams, Texas takes on TCU, Indiana travels to Kentucky, and Ohio State visits Cleveland State.

Most of the top D2 programs are competing next weekend - Henderson State and Drury at UALR pits two teams with very strong sprint crews - HSU's Lammy Taylor almost joined the sub-20 party with a 20.2 last weekend, and they also boast GCU transfer and 19.3/42.7 sprinter Jack Armstrong. Drury's pedigree speaks for itself plus UALR is a fast pool.

Another tidbit on this meet - Drury's roster shows PAC-12 champion and 41.9/1:31.7 Freestyler Cameron Craig on their roster, so I'm interested to see if he is swimming or not.

Lastly, big news out of Indiana University. The Olympic Champion, Ahmed Hafnaoui, is ineligible for the year. He will still train at IU this year but won't be in any meets. We should see him this December at SC World Championships and he still has four years of eligibility remaining.

⚔️ UVA ORANGE vs BLUE ⚔️

Brett and I went to UVA for the 2nd consecutive year to commentate the Orange vs. Blue intrasquad meet. We got permission to live stream the meet this year plus we used Swimnerd Live to power the virtual scoreboard so that parents at home got to see their kids names and splits.

There were a few eye popping swims from the 2x defending National Champion Women's team.

Kate Douglass threw down a 21.4 50 Free and a 52.7 100 IM. Gretchen Walsh ripped a 23.3 50 Backstroke. Those are silly fast times!

We interviewed Head Coach Todd DeSorbo and some of UVA's finest. Check them out here:

Enjoy the college swimming review?

Click on a link to vote.