COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

Levi Sandidge, Kentucky's Ironman Freshman: Indiana visited Kentucky in a midweek, full-schedule dual meet on Wednesday. While Indiana took the team win going away, Kentucky freshman Sandidge had a remarkable meet with a full schedule of his own. First, he took the 1000 free in 9:02.22 (high school PB 8:58). Further along in the meet, he won the 500 free in 4:25.05 (HS PB 4:24), and then the 400 IM in 3:53.57 (HS PB 3:52). That's a good start to a college career! This guy is definitely a pure distance man, as his 400 FR split to close out the meet (47.81) was actually faster than his fastest logged HS 100 free (48.12).

SMU Classic Fireworks: As expected, this meet had some of the fastest SCY swimming we've seen since last year's NCAA champs. From an individual standpoint, Gabi Albiero really stood out - she might only have been the second fastest women's 100 Fly on the weekend, but 51.1 is 2 tenths off her best and already on a cusp of an A final swim at NCAAs. She also won the 50 Free (22.17) and the 100 Free (48.08) and put together some killer relay legs.

From a team standpoint, the A&M men just keep impressing - where they used to be the Casas Show, they've really expanded their depth the past couple years.

Here are the meet records set - a big deal at a meet with this much history!

• Men's 400 MR: Texas (3:07.25)

• Men's 400 IM: Jake Foster, Texas (3:41.97) in the B flight, followed by Carson Foster, Texas (3:38.79) in the A flight.

• Men's 200 Free: Jack Dahlgren, Mizzou (1:33.48)

• Women's 100 Fly: Gabi Albiero, Louisville (51.19)

• Women's 100 Breast: Kaitlyn Dobler, USC (59.09)

• Men's 500 Free: Luke Hobson, Texas (4:15.88)

• Men's 200 IM: Carson Foster, Texas (1:42.68) + Baylor Nelson (A&M) also went faster than the old record (1:43.32)

• Men's 200 FR: Texas A&M (1:18.66) and Mizzou (1:18.77) both were under the old record

Division 2, Starting Off With a Bang: With conference and NCAAs a month earlier for D2, teams are a bit further along with their competition schedules than D1, so most of the top teams have logged at least one official meet thus far. Some great swims across the division this weekend. We had a couple D2-over-D1 upsets, with the UIndy men and women defeating IUPUI and the McKendree men topping Southern Illinois in a bit of a thriller. The latter meet had a few notable swims - McKendree sophomore Jack Lustig popped 47.95/1:45.35 butterflies, with a 21.65 fly relay split and a 1:50.66 200 IM for good measure, with SIU freshman Ruard van Renen went 47.87/1:47.21 backs with a 44.88 free relay split.

 Maggie MacNeil, On the Warpath: Maybe she's looking to avenge her 100 Fly loss from last year. Maybe she's feeling better after taking half a step back out of the spotlight this summer. Maybe she's just gotten faster. Whatever the reason or combination, she's taking no prisoners thus far. LSU took on South Carolina in an SEC dual, and MacNeil already started to rewrite the Tiger record book. She warmed up with a 22.29 fly split in the medley relay. She won the 100 Back in a pedestrian (for her) 53.51. Her first record on the day came via a 21.90 50 Free, but that was still a warmup for the 50.84 100 Fly she blasted to finish her day. That's the first known training suit swim under 51, and would have placed 6th at NCAAs last year.

UT's Distance Group, But Not THAT UT: University of Tampa came out to the Nova Southeastern Sharks Invite all guns blazing. They showcased some great in-season relays and a lot of depth, but the thing that stood out most was the top of their distance group. Louisville transfer Hayden Curley and Hungarian freshman Barnabas Fluck (now *there's* a name!) started out with a 4:26/4:27 1-2 in the 500 Free. Those times would already both have scored at NCAAs last year. Curley added in a 9:15 1000 (also a points-worthy swim) and a 3:58 IM, while Fluck went 1:40 in the 200, 9:21 in the 1000, and contributed a 45.5 400 FR split. With a void at the top of the division due to Queens and Lindenwood going D1, Tampa is poised to move up.

🏊🏼 RELAY OF THE WEEK 🏊‍♀️

Henderson State University 200 Free Relay: 1:20.19

• Jack Armstrong - 20.23

• Patryk Dabrowski - 20.42

• Jace Pinkney - 20.20

• Lammy Taylor - 19.34

Raise your hand if you had HSU as the best 200 Free Relay of the weekend outside of the SMU Classic? This small school in rural Arkansas (2,500 enrollment) has some history (Emre Celik was the D2 200 Back NCAA record-holder for several years, and Zach Interrante won a national championship in 2010), but this dual meet time is already the fourth fastest 200 Free Relay in school history. They have plenty more to give, too, as the latter three were all multiple tenths faster at NCAAs last year and Armstrong went a 19.30 last year for GCU. Also Henderson State is not a fast pool to say the least. The D2 record is 1:16.90 - this relay record is officially on my watch list to go down.

🏊🏽‍♂️ MEET OF THE WEEK 🏊🏼

Navy (150) vs Penn State (148) Men

Meets that come down to the final relay are always the most fun. Navy beat out Penn State 2:58.8-3:00.7 in the final event 400 Free Relay to eke out a win over the Nittany Lions. Everett Andrew was the hero for the Midshipmen, taking the 100/200 Free and getting 2nd in the 500 in 44.6/1:38.0/4:30 and anchoring the aforementioned meet-winning relay in 44.1. Penn State's Victor Baganha had an admirable performance in defeat, winning the 50 in 20.00 and the 100 Fly in 47.6 while contributing a 20.7 200 MR fly split (THAT'S QUICK!) and a 44.1 400 FR leadoff.

🏊🏽‍♂️ WEEKEND PREVIEW 🏊🏼

Several more top teams officially opening up their dual meet seasons this next week. Here's what I'm most excited to see:

• Utah makes its annual Bay Area whirlwind trip, taking on Cal on Wednesday and Stanford on Thursday. We'll get a first look at how the young stars of the Cardinal women's team are looking coming out of their big summers, and their first go at figuring out lineups for this versatile team.

• Staying in California, the USC Invite serves as the season kickoff for Auburn and USC's men, and also UCSD, Hawaii, and UNLV. USC often suits up and puts out some great early season times at this meet (Dobler was 57.9 in the 100 Breast here last year, for example). I'm also interested to see what Year 2 of Ryan Wochomurka looks like at Auburn.

• NC State opens up their season at Tennessee. Tennessee is Top 10, but the NC State men may be on another level this year. With the cracks showing in Texas's sprint armor, the Wolfpack might be embarking on their most successful season yet. The women's meet should be a tight affair.

• Missouri State vs Drury is a crosstown rivalry that brings out the best in both teams. Drury is always one of the favorites in D2, so we'll see what they have in a little fresher state at home.

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