COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

The College Swimming Roundup is brought to you by The CG Sports Company, the representation behind some of your favorite swimmers like Elizabeth Beisel, Beata Nelson, and Kieran Smith.

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

College Kids at the World Cup - The chatter in Toronto this weekend was more about Ledecky's world record, McIntosh excelling in every event 200 and over, and Casas being near-unstoppable, but some NCAA stars have also been taking on the World Cup series (short course meters) this year. The performance of the weekend was probably LSU's Maggie Mac Neil breaking the WC record in the 100 Fly in 54.78 (49.3 SCY conversion). She also won the 50 Fly and Back and took 2nd in the 50 Free. She and teammate Brooks Curry flew up from Louisiana from their Thursday afternoon meet recapped below for this meet, and Curry also had a great showing, winning the 200 Free, coming in 2nd in the 50, and 3rd in the 100. Also of particular note were some strong performances by Texas Longhorns - at the top of that list was Kelly Pash's 2:03.61 200 Fly win (1:51.3 conversion - possible challenger for Alex Walsh?); while they also had some strong breaststroke showings from Anna Elendt (who broke the German 100 Breast record), Lydia Jacoby, and Caspar Corbeau. Expect a lot more NCAA representation at the Indy stop this week.

Tiger Bowl, Swimming Edition - Auburn traveled to LSU for their annual rivalry meet on Thursday. Less than a week after the Louisiana Tiger variety beat the Auburn version on the gridiron, the Auburn swimmers had revenge on both sides, and while Auburn won convincingly, these are both teams on their rise this year. We know about LSU's stars in Maggie Mac Neil and Brooks Curry - they came .07 in Curry's 50 Free from another sweep of their individual events before flying up to Toronto - MacNeil was 22.36 in the 50 and 52.65/1:56.23 Backs, while Curry swam a 19.89/43.47/1:36.96 free triple. That 50 Free was won by Auburn's Kalle Makinen, who backed up his suited 19.71 at USC with an 19.82 here. The Auburn women are showing an impressive amount of depth to open up the season - they put two 200 Medley Relays under 1:40, 3 100 Backstrokers 54.2 or better, and 3 50 Freestylers under 23.5, all strong for a midweek dual. Taking the long view, LSU and Auburn men have both gathered impressive stables of sprinters. LSU hasn't swam a relay at NCAAs since 2016-2017, but led by champ and Olympic gold medalist Curry and bolstered by holdovers like Jack Jannasch (PRs 19.9/43.8) and Spencer Adrian (43.9/1:36), transfers Noah Cumby (19.9/43.2/1:35) and Trey Ike (19.9/43.8), and freshmen Andrew Garon (20.4/44.3) and Stuart Higdon (1:36), they may be knocking on the door this year. Auburn, on the other hand, looks to rekindle the sprint dominance they enjoyed while head coach Ryan Wochomurka was a Tiger. They boast the aforementioned Finnish freshman Makinen, who joins returners Logan Tirheimer (19.3/42.3), brothers Nate (19.4) and Aidan (43.0) Stoffle, Louisville transfer Mihalis Deliyiannis (19.2/43.5) and a weapon we haven't seen yet this season in freshman Daniil Markov (21.3/47.1 SCM, 19.2/42.4 converted).

Jake Magahey, King of the Freestyle Triple - The World's Largest Cocktail Swim Meet (aka the Florida vs Georgia meet) was a little lower-key with UF and UGA's women both a bit down this year and Josh Liendo up in Toronto for the World Cup, throwing a wrench in the Gator mens' preferred lineup. Fireworks still boomed Friday morning as Georgia won the upset in the men's meet even with a 400 Medley Relay DQ, and the Gators took the women's meet convincingly. NCAA 500 Free favorite Jake Magahey has been swimming the 1000-200 Free back-to-back double all his college career, but this may have been his magnum opus. First, he swam a controlled 9:01.35 to take the 1000 over a pretty loaded field (5 guys in the heat have swam the mile at NCAAs), then he turned around and ran down Florida breakout sophomore Julian Smith with a 23.86 last 50 on the way to a 1:35.26. Later in the meet, he tacked on a negative split 4:18.61 500 Free win, and a 19.81 200 Free Relay split for kicks and giggles. Of other note, the aforementioned Smith's 1:35.96 200 Free was a best time for him, as was his 20.08 200 Free Relay leadoff. His 43.65 100 Free win was also a tenth off his best. And more on the freestyle side of things, Georgia's Abby McCulloh took back her early season 1000 Free lead with a 9:42.30 - she was only out 9:37 in her 2022 5th place 15:49 PR mile, so she looks to be making a nice progression this year. The Florida women also popped a strong 5th ranked 1:30.24 200 Free Relay, featuring a blazing 21.9 split by Katie Mack.

Oklahoma Christian Making a Case - The only NCAA swim team in Oklahoma boasts an on campus pool that is probably in the worst handful of pools I've ever swam in. However, multi-Olympic medalist Coach Josh Davis has built up one of the best teams in D2 in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. This weekend they took on D1 mid-majors SMU and Incarnate Word and held their own. On the women's side, Vivian Pitsch submitted the best 100 Back in D2 over the last weekend with a 57.48, and also the fastest 200 Medley Relay leadoff by half a second with a 26.66. The men submitted a well-balanced performance. Their 1:29.25 200 Medley Relay (22.97/24.37/21.84/20.07) and 1:20.88 200 Free Relay (20.50/20.21/20.20/19.97) are Top 3 in the nation thus far, while Victor Rosado popped a 4:25.40 500 Free and 1:47.69 200 Fly and 2021 NCAA 200 Breast champ JT Amrein went 54.47/2:00.51 in his specialty in addition to a smoking 24.37 relay split.

Jasmine Nocentini Rocking Relays - Northwestern had one of the latest season openers outside of the Ivy League, taking on UIC and Illinois this weekend. While it was a bit of a lower-key meet in general, 50 Free school record holder Jasmine Nocentini put together two of the most impressive times of the weekend on relays swims. First, she swam a 26.83 breaststroke leg on the Wildcats' 200 Medley Relay. That's one of the best splits in the nation thus far this year. She won the 100 Free in 49.23 and 100 Breast in a 1:00.34 best time (the fastest in the nation over the weekend), and then one-upped herself with a 48.82 400 Free Relay leadoff. That's just a second off of her best time, and the 8th fastest in the NCAA on the year.

Johns Hopkins Dominating the Leaderboards - The fastest D3 team in the nation this weekend was the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. They took on a D1 field at the Loyola Maryland hosted Thomas Murphy Invite. Just a quick glance at the D3 leaderboards for the year will show how fast both women and men were relative to their division. For example, the Blue Jays now have 6 of the top 11 women's 200 Freestylers, from 1:50.42 (from Kristin Cornish, a time that would have placed in the A finals at last year's NCAAs) to 1:54.99. Cornish also blazed a 4:49 500 Free to lead the rest of the nation by 11 seconds, and (perhaps burying the lede a bit) a 16:29 1650 that was actually faster than her NCAA-winning time from last year and is her best college time. The men submitted nation leading times in the 200, 500, and 1650 Frees, 100 and 200 Breast, 100 and 200 Fly, and 200 and 400 IM. Avery Clapp led the way with 48.24/1:48.50 in the flies, and upped the ante with 21.34/47.55 fly medley relay splits. The freshman (PRs 47.31/1:44.80, with 48.13/1:45.02 Backs to boot) may be the best bet to challenge returning butterfly champ UChicago's Jesse Ssengonzi.

🏊🏼 RELAY(S) OF THE WEEK 🏊‍♀️

Ohio State vs Virginia Tech 400 Free Relays

They posted the top two times in the nation this weekend, on both sides, and that was after a full weekend of racing. The women slot in at 7th and 9th overall this year, while the men sit at 4th and 7th. All four of these relays had questions coming into this year - for instance, VT women replaced 3 of the 4 legs from NCAAs, and the Ohio State men are dealing with the departure to the pro ranks of their best sprinter and newly-minted world record holder Hunter Armstrong, so these fast swims at the point in the season where everybody is starting to be tired and ready for taper are good signs going forward.

🏊🏽‍♂️ MEET OF THE WEEK 🏊🏼

Dension Women over Xavier, 137-125

A lower-division upset! Denison is historically one of the best D3 schools in the nation (they placed 3rd at NCAAs last year), but the gap between D1 and other divisions is usually so steep that you don't see these types of results regularly. Denison started off inauspiciously with an A relay DQ in the 200 Medley Relay to stake Xavier a 15-2 head start, then it was off to the races for the Big Red. Denison seemed to get their hands on the wall first in nearly every close race - Claire Moody took the 100 Back 58.88 to 58.95, Quinn Brown the 200 Fly 2:08.04 to 2:08.36 and 500 Free 5:03.66 to 5:03.67, Tara Culibrk the 100 Free 53.06 to 53.08, and Phoebe Ferguson the 100 Fly 57.41 to 57.47. Kudos to head coach Gregg Parini, that many times getting hands on the wall first by a fingernail can't be a coincidence!

🏊🏽‍♂️ WEEKEND PREVIEW 🏊🏼

Virginia traveling to Austin to take on Texas. This is a whopper of a meet. Flame broiled.

On the women's side, Virginia's strength is unmatched but Texas and their deep fly and breast crews is one of several teams in the very next tier. For the men, these are two very contrasting teams - Virginia makes its living in the sprints, while Texas excels in the longer events. We will see how the Longhorns continue to piece together relays to see if the noise following their recent personnel losses is real or if Eddie will make magic yet again.

The Stanford vs Cal Triple Distance Meet is always a fun one to check out. The structure of the meet means that everyone is typically swimming at least one event out of their comfort zone, and we usually see some fast times throughout.

Some more in-conference duals with Florida vs Tennessee (Liendo vs Crooks Round 1!) Wisconsin vs Minnesota, Texas A&M vs Kentucky, Michigan vs Northwestern, Notre Dame vs Louisville, and USC vs Arizona State and Arizona.

A huge meet in D2 at the McKendree Rec Plex as the host Bearcats take on the UIndy Greyhounds. These are two teams looking to fill the void left by perennial champion Queens and to a lesser extent Lindenwood leaving for D1. Indy finished 2nd for the women and 3rd for the men last year even with some coaching drama midyear, while McKendree's men came in 4th. Expect some nation-leading swims and relays out of this one.

A couple of intriguing lower-division invites happening - D3 powerhouse Emory welcomes strong D2 teams Wingate and Carson-Newman and also D1 Georgia Southern women, while the Drury Invite features the host as well as William Jewell and the Missouri S&T men.