2016 MEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 23 – Saturday, March 26
- McAuley Aquatic Center – Atlanta, GA
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Texas (results)
- Championship Central
- Live stream: Wednesday/Thursday prelins & finals, Friday/Saturday prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Live results
There are only a pair of scratches out of the circle-seeded heats on Thursday, or day 2 of the 2016 men’s NCAA Championships, both of them in the 50 free.
Ohio State sophomore Matt McHugh has scratched out of the 22nd spot in the 50 free, the highest scratch for the prelims session. McHugh seems likely to be a key leg on both the 200 free and 400 medley relays in that session, so his scratch may be to keep him fresh for relay scoring.
He would have bumped Arizona’s Renny Richmond into the circle seeds, but Richmond also scratched from the 25th seed, perhaps for the same relay-based reasons.
You can view the full heat sheets here.
A few more notable scratches:
- Texas freshman John Shebat will not swim the 200 IM after coming in as the 25th seed. His best chance to score comes in the 100 back on Friday.
- Indiana freshman Vinicius Lanza scratched out of the 26th seed in the IM, just behind Shebat. He, too, stands a much better shot of scoring in the 100 fly and 200 fly over the next two days, and is also a likely part of Indiana’s 400 medley relay.
- NC State’s Joe Bonk scratched out the 50 free after coming in as the 29th seed. He’s locked in for a role on the 200 free relay and was the 400 medley relay anchor at ACCs, though the Wolfpack could go other directions with that leg if they wished.
The rest of the scratches:
500 free:
- 30th: Pace Clark, Georgia
- 36th: Matthias Lindenbauer, Louisville
- 51st: Jimmy Yoder, Stanford
200 IM:
- 25th: John Shebat, Texas
- 26th: Vinicius Lanza, Indiana
- 30th: Hennessey Stuart, NC State
- 34th: Grigory Tarasevich, Louisville
- 35th: Carlos Claverie, Louisville
- 36th: Robert Owen, Virginia Tech
- 39th: Jason Coombs, Florida State
- 41st: Ching Lim, Ohio State
- 50th: Lucas Bureau, Virginia Tech
- 51st: Eddie Mapel, Missouri
- 52nd: Fabian Schwingenschlogl, Missouri
- 53rd: Nils Wich-Glasen, South Carolina
- 63rd: Reed Matthews, Old Dominion
- 65th: Conner McHugh, Minnesota
- 67th: Derek Hren, NC State
- 68th: Matthew Anderson, Stanford
- 70th: James Guest, Georgia
- 71st: Blair Bish, Arizona
50 free:
- 22nd: Matt McHugh, Ohio State
- 25th: Renny Richmond, Arizona
- 29th: Joe Bonk, NC State
- 33rd: Chatham Dobbs, Arizona
- 48th: Nic Graesser, UNC
- 54th: Andrew Sansoucie, Missouri
Or just on the preliminary relay… with Haas looking like he can do anything at the moment… maybe he anchors at finals?
That means Texas is probably using Shebat in the 400MR, which means Conger is probably swimming the free leg.
Good call scratching Pace Clark out of the 500. Based on how he’s swum this year, he’s a real medal threat in the flys.