COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

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🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

Pre-Conference Invites Round 1

As always, a good handful of strong performances from the first round of pre-conference invitationals. Let's start in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the Cavalier Invite featured the Virginia women doing Virginia women things. The best swim of the weekend came at the end of the meet, where multi-time Worlds and NCAA champ Kate Douglass blasted a 2:01.43 200 breast PR and American record. Won't count for an NCAA record because it was in a time trial, but she dropped .4 off her old season best and American record.

She also showed off a bit with a 50.47 100 back PB. Olympic teammate Alex Walsh took an opportunity to take over the #1 spot in the country in the 200 IM from Douglass with a 1:51.95 (splitting a very balanced 24.16/27.54/33.01/27.24), while Ella Nelson went a 1:53.69 (with a 31.70/26.85 back half!) to slot in at #4 in the country in the same event.

A couple of first year Hoos swam more expanded schedules and showed they'll be players come March as well. New Zealand midseason pickup Aimee Canny went versatile with 22.31/1:42.78 frees (the latter #2 in the nation thus far) and 1:56.68 IM. Age group mid distance wunderkind Claire Tuggle hit PR 48.99/1:44.81 frees, the latter her first best time in the event since 2018.

For the men, UVA showed off some of their sprint depth, with 1:17.23 (19.35/19.07/19.06/19.75) and 1:19.16 (20.28/19.65/19.39/19.84) 200 free relays. Texas transfer Tim Connery, the 19.06 fastest split in the A relay, also popped PRs in the 100 free (42.54) and 100 breast (52.95). The former sits him #23 in the nation, definitely on the NCAA bubble (around 30 usually qualify) unless he drops some more at ACCs.

Meanwhile, a couple hours down the road, the VT Invite also featured some nationally-relevant swims from the hosts. Youssef Ramadan took over the top spot in the nation in the 100 fly with a 44.42, and also logged a 1:42.96 PR in the 200 fly, 45.48 PR in the 100 back, and 19.22/42.57 free relay leadoffs. Teammate Carles Coll Marti hit some strong times - 51.50/1:52.82 breasts (the former a PR), 1:43.56 IM, and 18.98/43.23 free relay splits. In terms of NCAA qualifying impact, Olympic finalist Nico Garcia hit a 1:41.04 200 back to sit #17 in the nation. He didn't make NCAAs with a 1:41.00 last year, but with lots of graduations in the event, that may be enough this year.

At the Auburn Invite, we mostly saw Auburn and Florida with last-week prep for SECs - with both men's teams showing off some impressive free depth and the Auburn women showcasing their stroke groups but mostly not top form quite yet - however Florida's Tyler Watson most likely locked up his NCAA invite with a 14:48.34 mile that puts him at 6th in the country. Fellow Gator Ed Fullum-Huot went three best times in the shorter frees at 19.46/42.49/1:37.28. The 100 sits at #18 in the country, but still perhaps on the wrong side of the bubble (42.34 made the meet last year).

Notably in D3, Ponoma-Pitzer's Alex Turvey perhaps found a new third event. The junior was 4nd in the 100 free, 8th in the 50 free, and 12th in the 100 fly in 2022, but popped a #2 ranked 1:49.92 in the 200 free at the C-M-S Invite.

Pac-12 Duals

The Pac-12 keeps putting up outstanding dual meet times heading into championships season. As usual, superstar Leon Marchand of Arizona State was the headliner. He took on some off events (LOL) against Arizona, casually swimming nation leading 44.77 100 back and 4:07.81 500 free that sits him as the 5th fastest performer of all time.

He also anchored the Sun Devils' 2:48.00 400 free relay (42.88/41.73/41.86/41.53), a time that's only .07 off their season best relay. ASU went another 1:22 200 medley relay as well, this time a 1:22.98 (21.20/23.20/19.84/18.74), trying out freshman Jonny Kulow at anchor. He's knocked out a number off 18.mid/41.mid relay splits recently and could be a big factor in March spelling Marchand and Grant House in the relay(s) those two have to sit out.

The Sun Devil women showed off some mid-D free depth that will be useful come Pac-12s and NCAAs - their top 3 went season bests, with Lindsay Looney at 1:45.18, Molly Batchelor 1:45.69, and Ieva Maluka 1:46.25.

The USC men took a Cal/Stanford tour over the weekend. The hosts won each meet with some illuminating swims. Hugo Gonzalez looks like he's rounding back into form for the Golden Bears, swimming a 1:43.36 200 back on interesting 25.21/26.78/25.73/25.64 splits. Cal introduced another midseason pickup, with Lucas Henveaux going 4:21.58/8:57.64 in the longer frees. Two vets who looked a bit out of sorts against ASU got back on track this weekend as well - Gabriel Jett went 1:43.03 fly, 42.76/4:19.83 frees, and Reece Whitley went a 1:53.92 breast.

The eye-opening swims for the Stanford meet came in post-meet time trials. Andrei Minakov has been known to swim in-season races... uniquely (I believe he has negative split a 43 100 free in the past), and he showed it here with a 1:32.80 200 free in which he split 21.65/24.60/23.05/23.50, while freshman Rafael Gu seems to get better in something every meet, this time PRing his 100 fly in 46.10. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he and the Cardinal freshman class swim come champs season, a good performance by that group could get them close to fighting for a podium spot.

Early NAIA Conference Meets 

The first conference meets of the season were hosted by NAIA conferences, with the Mid-South Conference and Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.

University of the Cumberlands convincingly won both sides of the MSC. Jokubas Jankauskas was the star for the Patriots, winning the backstrokes in 49.46/1:47.97 and taking 2nd in the 200 IM in 1:52.47 - all A-final worthy NAIA champs times. Cumberlands also popped national 3rd rankings 200 free, 400 free, and 400 medley relays. On the women's side, UC's Elisa Corradi dominated her events with three wins and PRs - 2:18.01 200 breast and 2:04.09/4:28.87 IMs. The 200 IM is the top NAIA time this year, would have won the 2022 championship by over a second and a half, and is only half a second off the national meet record.

The KCAC ended in another convincing sweep, this time by Olivet Nazarene. The highlight here was the women's 100 breast, featuring the 2-3-4-6-13 ranked swims in the nation, with ONU's Julie Vega leading the way with a PR 1:02.84.

🏊🏼 RELAY OF THE WEEK 🏊‍♀️

Colby/Bates Men's Relays

These might be my favorite examples of awesome rivalry meet relays this season. Colby won this meet, 142-138, which means that 200 free relay was for all the marbles. Mortimer's leadoff was a PR by a quarter second. Kronenwetter split under 20 for the first time. Xiong's best flat start 50 is a 21.10! (Also I swam a 1650 at his HS alma mater's pool with the lights off for the last 1000 20+ years ago). Colby hit school records in both these relays, and Bates was mere tenths off of their school records. The medley relays put the teams at 12th and 13th in D3 this year, while the free relays now sit at 5th and 12th. I love finding results like this!

🏊🏽‍♂️ WEEKEND PREVIEW 🏊🏼

Here we go, Week One of the conference meet extravaganza. This week is all about D2 and D3. Here's the headliners:

Great Lakes Valley Conference - D2 NCAA podium contenders Indy, McKendree, Drury. Lewis, UMSL, Missouri S&T men and others looking to qualify for March. First year team Quincy with their first taste of conference meet action.

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference - D2 NCAA podium contender Colorado Mesa. Olympian Josh Davis's Oklahoma Christian teams with some big star power. Colorado School of Mines on the upswing. Let's see what these kids can do in altitude!

Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference - D2 stalwarts Grand Valley State, Wayne State, and St. Cloud State and relative newcomers Northern Michigan, Saginaw Valley State, Davenport, and Augustana. Luka Cvetko vs Abe Townley in the 50 free might be the race of the entire weekend as they come in with respective 19.43/19.49 PRs.

University Athletic Association - D3 Men's defending NCAA champ and women's defending runner-up Emory along with strong NCAA participants NYU, WashU, Carnegie Mellon, and UChicago.

North Coast Athletic Conference - Kenyon/Denison rivalry meets again. Both are D3 NCAA podium contenders, though Kenyon's upped the ante with a bunch of division leading times last weekend, so let's see if the momentum is there.

NESCAC Women - Williams is the big one here, though Tufts, Bates, and Bowdoin all regularly make a mark at NCAAs.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference - Always one of the most-debated conferences on the old Collegeswimming.com forums, Rider is a solid favorite on the men's side, while Niagra, Iona, and Fairfield are strong contenders for the women.

Meanwhile, if the men's swims this weekend are any indication, Cal/Stanford women should be a good dual. Do the Cardinal ladies answer back after the past couple weekends for Virginia and Texas? And what will a Claire Curzan/Isabelle Stadden backstroke showdown look like?

And we've got some more first-chance meets happening in D1, headlined by the Louisville Invite and Ohio State Invite.

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