2019 Men’s NCAA Championships: Cal Dominates Day 4 Up/Down

b2019 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 27 – Saturday, March 30
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, Texas
• Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Central Time)
• Defending champion: Texas (4x) (2018 results)
• Psych Sheet
• Live Stream
• Live results

With two swimmers in the A-final of each event tonight, California will have eight championship final swims tonight, more than twice as many as any other school.  In what has been a near-perfect meet for Dave Durden’s squad, the Golden Bears got both strong performances from their top-seeded swimmers and significant time drops from guys who were seeded outside of scoring position (Ryan Hoffer in the 100 free, Carson Sand in the 200 breast) are also the top seed in the 400 freestyle relay.

Notably, Texas is the only other squad that has two swimmers in an A-final of a single event.  The Longhorns started off hot, with two A-finalists and two B-finalists in the 200 backstroke, but an underwhelming 100 freestyle (Townley Haas stuck in the B-final, and Tate Jackson out entirely) effectively ended the team title race.  However, the Longhorns still have the second-most swims in tonight’s final session, including three A-finalists.

Indiana and NC State are essentially locked into third and fourth place, respectively, following the morning events.  Both schools have 3 swimmers “up” and 1 swimmer “down”, along with an A-final appearance in the 400 freestyle relay.

Some other interesting tidbits from further down the list in the team race:

• Louisville now has a definitive leg up on Florida, thanks to an A-final appearance in the 400 free relay and an extra B-final swimmer
• Harvard is on track for their first top 10 finish since 1963
• Pending Michigan’s 1650 performance, Ohio State could finish ahead of Michigan for the first time since 1985
• Georgia, who is all the way down in 19th place, will get a big boost tonight with A-final appearances from Camden Murphy and James Guest.  

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best during prelims. In prelims at the NCAA Championships, swimmers and divers qualify for one of two finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, and places 9 through 16, the B final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time, or score the most diving points, of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Down” to swimmers in the B final.

DAY 3 – A/B FINALISTS*

*Platform diving not included