Over the next few weeks, as the Long Course season closes out, new freshman are arriving on campus, and fans everywhere ramp up for another exciting NCAA Season, we will be running a team-by-team preview of the upcoming NCAA season. Starting with the no.12 teams and finishing with the defending National Championships (Texas men and Florida women) we will work our way down the top finishers from last year’s NCAA teams, and will also jump into some rising teams that we expect to break into the top tier this season. Click here to see the other men’s previews, and click here to see all of the previews for both Men and Women.
Key Losses: Jordan Smith (4 NCAA Points, 5 NCAA Relays), Jake Tapp (31 NCAA Points, 4 Relays), Marcus Titus (21 NCAA Points, 2 Relays), Bryan O’Connor (24 NCAA Points, 1 Relay), Joel Greenshields (3 NCAA Relays), Bryan O’Connor (14 NCAA Points, 1 NCAA Relay), Jordan Slaughter (1 NCAA Relay), Jean Basson (28 NCAA Points, 1 Relay), Jack Brown (35 NCAA Points, 1 Relay), Clark Burckle (34 NCAA Points)
Key Additions: Matt Barber (Mid-Distance), Mitchell Friedemann (Sprint Free, Back, Fly), Tommy Gutman (Sprint Free, Breast), Ellis Miller (Back, Fly, Sprint Free), Jeff Amlee (Sprint Free), Henrique Martins (Fly), Kevin Steel (Sprint Free)
Team Overview: The Arizona men’s team, like their women’s squad that we just profiled, loses a ton of scorers from last year. In fact, the men’s team loses even more individual points (192) from their 10 departing NCAA scorers.
Despite losing so many pieces, the Arizona men’s team feels closer to being back in the top tier, based on returning swimmers, than their female counterparts. They lost Jake Tapp, who was the NCAA runner-up in the 100 backstroke, and Marcus Titus, who was fourth in the 100 breaststroke. They also lost their best freestyle sprinter Jordan Smith (13th in the 50) and their best middle-distance freestyle swimmer Jean Basson (2nd in the 500).
This is a senior group that held this team together for a third-place finish, despite being the epicenter (along with fellow top-4 finishers Stanford and Texas) of the illness that caused the NCAA Championships to be delayed for a day.
Mid-Meet Recovereies: But despite losing a gigantic class, this class still feels like a top-4 team, which shows the huge depth they had last season. They return redshirt junior Cory Chitwood, who actually had a much faster time in winning the B-final of the 100 back (45.77) on day 2 than Tapp did in finishing second overall in. On day 1, Chitwood took 12th in the 200 IM. On day 3, he took home the national championship in the 200 back (1:39.2). Given the illness that went around the team, it’s possible that sometime between prelims and finals on the second day he fully recovered; resulting in some impressive performances to finish the meet. Regardless of what happened last year, Chitwood is a heavy favorite to pull off the backstroke double at NCAA’s this year. Add to that an A-final in the 200 IM, and Chitwood should break the 50-point barrier.
The Wildcats also bring back a strong middle-distance freestyler in junior Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or. He was 9th in the 200 free (1:34.2) at NCAA’s, and was 22nd in the 500 (4:20.6). Shapira Bar-Or was another swimmer who got stronger as the night went on, and capped his meet off by jamming out a 42.4 in the sixth place 400 free relay; his team’s fastest split by over half-a-second. He is another three-event finalist this season for the Wildcats.
Their best butterflier, junior AJ Tipton, returns with season bests of 46.9/1:43.0. He should have been solidly in the A-final of the 200 if he had gone close to his season best (which was from December), but instead added two-and-a-half seconds to finish 24th. He will do well to improve his 100 time this season if he wants to hold his relay spot, but will be shooting for double-digit points in the 200. The top returning breaststroker is Kevin Munsch, who went a 53.1 at NCAA’s. These four swimmers (Chitwood, Munsch, Tipton, Shapira Bar-Or) will combine for a medley relay that’s about as fast as last year’s, even with 3 new relay members.
Junior Austen Thompson was the consolation-champion in the 400 IM at 3:42.3. He was DQ’ed in the 200 IM, but should be a double finalist in 2011.
In the Sprints: Even though they graduated their best sprinter, Smith, Arizona returns at least their next best four, giving them a strong foundation for their free relays. Look out for sophomore Nick Popov, who went a 43.9 at Pac-10’s last year but couldn’t crack Arizona’s NCAA lineup, to make a big improvement in his second season training stateside. Also check out Adam Small, a junior from Tempe (home of rival Arizona State). He flat-started a 19.69 at NCAA’s, and got as low as 19.13 in the 200 free relay. He also split a 20.59 on the butterfly leg of the 200 medley, which was one of the better marks in the field.
Three Headed Monster: The Arizona freshman class is small, especially compared to the sizes of many of their top 10 counterparts like Michigan, but the top four American swimmers are all in the top 50 of the class. This group features a three-headed monster of swimmers that complement each other perfectly in the sense of developing a diverse core for the future of the program. The class comprises potential NCAA scorers in every discipline and distance, and shows diversity not only in talent but it their home regions. This is a class that might have as much of an impact as any in the nation, both out of talent and necessity.
Matt Barber from Houston is a middle-distance superstar in the making. During the 2009-2010 textile season, he posted a 1:37.3/4:22.0 to pull off a Texas two-step State Championship. He also has a very impressive 1:47.0 in the 200 fly. Barber swims for Blue Tide Aquatics in Northern Houston, which to me doesn’t get as much National Recognition as it deserves. They pump out a ton of D-1 swimmers, and are holders of National Record-setting relays at many levels.
Star 1-A of this group is Mitchell Friedemann who trains with the Schroeder Y in Wisconsin. He is a versatile sprinter-extraordinaire, with bests of 20.33 and 44.24 in the short freestyles. His 100 freestyle time was third in the nation for high schoolers behind only Vlad Morizov, who’s headed to Pac-10 rival USC, and David Nolan (c/o 2011). He couples those times, which are impressive on their own, with bests of 48.6 in the 100 fly and 47.6 in the 100 back (third in the class). Friedemann is going to be big-time on his own, and maybe more importantly will be capable of swimming about ten different relay spots for the Wildcats.
If Barber is number 1 in the class, and Friedemann is 1-A, then Tommy Gutman from Florida is without a doubt right alongside them at 1-B. His 20.1 50 freestyle ranks him 5th in the class, and his 44.8 100 is top 15. He also has a 56.1 in his 100 breaststroke (he went a 55.0 in 2008 when he was only 15) to help round out the class.
The Rest are Good Too: Behind them is Ellis Miller, who is from Arkansas but listed by USA-Swimming as training with NBAC. He is a backstroker/butterflier who can swim both distances in each stroke. In the flys, he had bests of 48.8 and 1:49.3. In the backstroke events, where he’s a little stronger, he went 49.3/1:46.3 last season. He also has a best of 20.88 in the 50 freestyle, which could allow him to develop into a solid free relay contributor as well.
Arizona also brought in another breaststroker in Kevin Steel, who while fairly limited in his versatility, has a best of 56.3 in the 100; and another freestyler in Tucson native Jeff Amlee, with 20.8/45.8 in the sprints.
International Man of Mystery: Internationally, Arizona picks up Brazilian Henrique Martins, who is a world-class butterflier. Though it’s been tough to find his best times from the textile season, based on some times from various parts of the seasons that I’ve been able to cobble together, Martins should be looking at a 20-high for his 50 fly, and a 46-high in the 100 as a freshman, which would be outstanding times. His long course 50 fly best of 24.5 ranks him as 83rd best in the world for the 2010 long course season. In 2009, in a tech suit, he managed to go sub-52 in the 100 fly.
High Riser: On the boards, Arizona will return junior Ben Grado, who is a high-dive specialist. He finished 6th at NCAA’s on the 3-meter, and just missed the B-final on platform where he was 16th the season before. This year, he will be a threat to score on both.
2011 Prognosis: This Arizona team was shredded by graduation, and yet they still look like a very good team. This team’s season rides on moderately sized big If’s: If AJ Tipton or Henrique Martins can get their 100 fly time down towards a 46.5; if the freshman class develops as they should given their pedigrees and the quality of coaching in Tuscon; and if Arizona can avoid any major disruptions to their training cycle like the illness from last season. IF the Wildcats get close on those three if’s, they could creep into the top 5 again this season.
Frank reloads better than anyone after they graduate a lot and people count them out. I agree, count them in for a top 5 finish!