Swimmer of the Meet: Tom Shields, California. Shields pretty much won this award in a single session of work on Friday night. Shields not only swept both the national titles in the 100 back and 100 fly but came through with stellar relay legs to keep Cal right near the top of the heap in both the 200 medley and 800 free relays. Many thought Shields would wear down coming into the 100 back and might be susceptible to Stanford’s young star David Nolan but Shields proved the doubters wrong. The only thing Shields did ‘wrong’ all weekend was fail to grab that elusive 200 fly title that has been evading him. Had the race been five yards longer, he would have won that too. Honorable mention goes to Jimmy Feigen of Texas (50 and 100 free champ) and Martin Grodzki of Georgia (500 and 1,650 champ).
Diver of the Meet: Drew Livingston, Texas. A couple of folks were in the running for this one, but there’s no question Livingston was the most consistent and deserving performer at these championships. Bookending his freshman one-meter title with one in his senior campaign is only fitting. This guy came to Texas as a tower diver and, through a lot of hard work, has proven that he is as good as they come on any board. Not only that but Livingston was truly a ‘team’ guy, putting his money where his mouth is by returning to Texas during an Olympic year when a few of his other peers at the national level opted out. Those kinds of kids are special by doing wonders for the team dynamic. The Longhorns will really miss this guy next season. Honorable mention honors go to one-meter champ Kristian Ipsen of Stanford, platform champ Ben Grado of Arizona, and David Bonuchi of Missouri (silver on 1M, bronze on tower, sixth on 3M).
Coach of the Meet: Dave Durden, California. Raise your hand if you expected Cal to have the meet sewn up before the last relay even started. Yeah, me either. With this meet, Durden has gone from a coach that was beloved for finally getting the Bears to end a long title drought (thanks to an experienced and talented group of seniors) to one many can now consider perhaps the best men’s coach in the country. It’s now apparent that Durden basically laid out his training this year under the same formula as Texas did -- no large amount of rest until NCAA’s – except that he did it with a slightly deeper unit. Everyone expected Texas to be in the ring swinging with full force thanks to a monster taper – and that they did; California just did it with a much younger and inexperienced group of men from which we didn’t know what to expect. Others well-deserving of this award were Eddie Reese of Texas (whose Longhorns exceeded their seed times by 248 points; they were projected to score 243), Louisville’s Arthur Albeiro (who not only finished in the top 10 but also exceeded their pre-meet seed projections and earned the school a first-ever NCAA swimming champion), and Indiana Diving Coach Dr. Jeff Huber (whose divers scored enough points to finish 15th in the team standings by themselves).
Freshman of the Meet: David Nolan, Stanford. Nolan may not have captured a title but he proved he more than belonged amongst the best collegians in the country in each of his races. The fabulous freshman earned silver in both backstrokes and bronze in the 200 IM while contributing on four relays. His biggest competition for this award was his own teammate, diver Kristian Ipsen (yes, this is a swimming and diving championship). Ipsen did Nolan one better by winning gold and silver on the springboards but Nolan was more solid through all three of his events, not to mention the relay work. Other contenders included 100 breast champ and new American record holder Kevin Cordes of Arizona, 200 fly champ Will Hamilton of Cal, and USC’s Cristian Quintero (silver in the 500 and two consol wins).
Race of the Meet: 1,650 Freestyle. While there weren’t a large amount of record-breaking swims, we got far more than our share of surprising moments and fantastic finishes. Both the 200 free relay (in which no one was paying attention to the two teams that got first and second until looking up at the scoreboard) and the 800 free relay (Neil Caskey of Texas catching Cal literally at the wall thanks to the second fastest split in the field) were definitely in the running. Let’s not forget about Carlos Almeida’s first-ever NCAA swimming title for Louisville in the closest 200 breast finish in NCAA history as well as Cory Chitwood doing likewise in the 200 back a few events earlier. But when it came down to both fabulous finish and record-breaking fashion, only the 1,650 could step up to the plate. Martin Grodzki of Georgia held off a feverish 25-yard surge from former champion Chad LaTourette of Stanford to win at the wall and erase the longest standing NCAA record on the books. Grodzki left with the collegiate and U.S. Open record while LaTourette finally got ahead of Chris Thompson’s mark of 14:26.62, taking the American record as a consolation prize in finishing runner-up. Pretty hard to believe that both the men’s and women’s miles ended up as arguably the two best NCAA championship races this season but they were all that and more.
Recapping the Top 10: I whiffed at the two lowest spots for the second straight season. Despite the best efforts of Martin Grodzki, I missed Georgia by one spot. I was concerned the relays would be a factor in keeping them out of the top 10 and indeed they did. I had banked on this not being the case, but Ohio State obviously was more prepared to swim fast at Big Ten’s again this year than NCAA’s, causing me to miss their actual finish by three places. On to those who did get the job done:
10. Indiana (My pick: Georgia) – Despite the lament of swimming coaches everywhere, the sport is called swimming AND diving. Diving is why and how the Hoosiers crawled into top 10 territory. IU had three divers score on both springboards and two get it done on the tower which amounted to 71 of their 140 points. The Hoosiers finished in the top 10 with practically no relay points (13th in both medleys). Top eight finishes by Kevin Trahim (fourth in the 400 IM) and Cody Miller (seventh in the 100 breast) also helped the Hoosiers grab top 10 status.
9. Louisville (My pick: Ohio State) – I really did want to pick Louisville for the top 10. Honestly I did. It’s hard to ignore 13 athletes at the meet, especially one Carlos Almeida. That said, I was concerned that many of the other Cards might be reticent in their first time at the dance and might have swam their best already in trying to get to there. Almeida was indeed their rock, winning the 200 breast and taking silver in the 100 breast. The Cardinals’ relays were more than solid, qualifying for the championship final in each of the first three. Joao De Lucca was terrific, grabbing third in the 200 free and seventh in the 100. Kudos to Head Coach Arthur Albeiro for not only getting so many guys to the meet but getting it done once there. Hopefully someone in basketball country will give this team and its new – and first-ever – national champion their due for a job well done.
8. Florida (My pick: Florida) – Finally, I remotely look like I know what I’m talking about. The Gators were one of only four teams in the top eight to exceed their pre-meet projections (the others finished 1-2-3). Marcin Cieslak was a big bright spot for the Gators as only Arizona’s Giles Smith (100 fly) and various Cal swimmers finished ahead of him individually all meet long. Freshmen Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez and Dan Wallace both earned top 10 finishes in the 400 IM while sophomore Bradley Deborde scraped together points in the sprint frees and helped push the sprint free relays to decent point totals.
7. USC (My pick: USC) I predicted USC being locked into this spot and indeed they were: 62.5 points out of sixth and 35 points ahead of eighth. The Trojans scored 46 less points than seeded but were hampered by a huge DQ in the 800 free relay after they had initially finished third. USC did manage to get big top six finishes out of their sprint free relays led by 50 free silver medalist Vlad Morosov. Freshman Cristian Quintero was huge for the Trojans, taking silver in the 500 and ninth in both the 200 and 1,650 frees. Dimitri Colupaev also added a silver medal in the 200 free.
6. Auburn (My pick: Auburn) Three correct in a row. I’m on a roll after my flubs at No. 9 and 10. The Tigers were 51.5 short of their pre-meet seed projections. The Tigers didn’t place five 50 freestylers in the top 15, as they were seeded, and also somehow lost the 200 free relay to a Cal team that didn’t have a single individual qualifier in the 50. To their credit, Auburn did still take second in both sprint free relays and added third and fifth place finishes in the 200 and 400 medley relays as well to rack up 127 of their 254.5 points in those four races alone. Sophomore Zane Grothe was the Tigers’ biggest individual scorer, taking fourth in both the 500 and 1,650 freestyles as well as a 14th in the 200 free. Fellow soph Marcelo Chierighini held to his pre-meet ranking of second in the 100 free, taking the silver medal behind 2012 sprint king Jimmy Feigen of Texas while Kyle Owens ‘A’ finaled in both the 200 IM and 100 back.
5. Michigan (My pick: Michigan) – Four in a row for yours truly. Somebody cool me off. Outside of Arizona, Michigan suffered the biggest letdown at NCAA’s among the top squads, falling 80 points short of their seed projections. The Wolverines had three of the top four seeds in the 500 free and exactly zero finished there, though Connor Jaeger and Sean Ryan did manage fifth and sixth-place finishes. Michigan grabbed sixth in both medley relays, both below their seeds, while their top-seeded 800 free relay finished fourth. Senior Daniel Madwed did manage fourth and fifth place finishes in the butterfly races, sophomore Kyle Whitaker earned his second straight silver medal in the 400 IM and Jaeger tossed in a bronze in the memorable mile to provide bright spots for the Michigan faithful.
4. Arizona (My pick: California) …aaand there goes my pick streak. Oops. It’s slightly ironic that I got Arizona and California flip-flopped. California hit the taper I was expecting the Wildcats to have. Arizona had quite a few hiccups on day one that pretty much eliminated them from contention right off the bat. Senior Cory Chitwood had the meet from hell (B final in the IM; completely missing finals in the 100 back after slipping off the blocks in prelims) until coming through with a big win on Saturday night. Senior diver Ben Grado was not as good on the springboards as I expected but he did come through big-time on Saturday night with an NCAA title on the tower in his swan song performance. Freshman Kevin Cordes was as advertised in the 100 breast, grabbing an American record in prelims and going on to win the title in his first stab at it. He later added silver in the 200 breast as well. Austen Thompson held true to his No. 1 ranking grabbing the gold in the 400 IM while Giles Smith added silver in the 100 fly. I was 22 points off what I thought they’d score on relays, hurt mostly by sixth-place finishes in the final two. The Wildcats did capture the national title in the 200 medley relay however. Breaststroker Carl Mickelson was also big for Zona, taking fourth in both breaststrokes.
3. Stanford (My pick: Stanford) These guys had the best start of any team on Thursday morning but pretty much flattened out from then on. Several of their guys came through on their tapers but not enough to put them in contention with the two big boys on the block. The Cardinal were fifth in three of five relays which hurting their chances of chipping their way towards the top two squads as neither Cal or Texas finished behind Stanford in any relay. Senior Chad LaTourette took care of business, grabbing the American record in a second place finish in the 1,650 and tacked on a bronze in the 500. Junior Aaron Wayne tossed in a pair of top five finishes in the sprint frees along with numerous great relay legs. David Nolan was solid in his first meet but came up short in his first bids for an NCAA title. That will likely change in the near future. Kristian Ipsen was the best diver at the meet not named Drew Livingston, serving notice that Stanford will be bringing big points in the diving well on all three boards for years to come. You could easily argue that Stanford’s freshmen (don’t forget about three-time scorer Andrew Cosgarea) were far more important to their team’s finish than Cal’s were. They just needed more from the rest of their squad.
2. Texas (My pick: Texas) Texas did indeed hit the big taper many were expecting. Jimmy Feigen was as good as any swimmer at the meet, winning both the 50 and 100 free titles. Dax Hill took the next step towards greatness with his first NCAA title and a flurry of terrific relay legs. Drew Livingston was the most consistent diver across all boards, earning well-deserved diver of the meet honors. Texas grabbed the 800 free relay title in what one could argue was the race of the meet thanks to a brilliant anchor by Neil Caskey. While Texas did have a few great individual performances in multiple events from swimmers, they needed to have more guys step up and do it. That’s the difference in why California is the NCAA champion and Texas is not.
1. California (My pick: Arizona) Quick -- Name something Cal did wrong or even sub-par at this meet. Yeah, I can’t either. They were on fire and no one could find the extinguisher. From Thursday night on, race after race after race the Golden Bears exceeded expectations, seed times, prelim placings, etc. etc. They, like Texas, outscored their projections by more than 200 points; the difference was they were ranked much higher entering the meet. Durden did a masterful coaching job and the University of California reaped the benefits. California grabbed this meet by the throat right from the start on Thursday night, winning the 200 free relay with a group made up of no invited 50 freestylers and three freshmen. It simply snowballed throughout the rest of the meet from there.
In closing, I’d like to thank all the folks at both Auburn University and Seattle University for being terrific NCAA Championship hosts. As someone who has spent his fair share of time hosting a handful of these meets in the last decade, I truly appreciate the weeks of hard work, long hours and endless list of demands from officials, coaches and, yes, the media. While no meet goes on without its problems, both these schools did a terrific job overall and should be rightly lauded for all their dedication, effort, and attention to detail. The folks working and organizing these meets are the true worker bees of their departments and they deserve a pat on the back.
…and if you’re looking for a caterer for your wedding, I suggest using the Tacoma Swim Club. Their hospitality room was $$$.
Congrats to everyone on a year of incredible swims, amazing records broken and ridiculously close finishes. If you are fortunate enough to have qualified for your country's Olympic Trials, I wish you the best of luck. Remember to represent yourself, your school and your sport with the effort and class each deserve.
May your hand hit the wall first every time,
Chris Harrell