Just like we did for the women, after each day of the 2012 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, we are going to post the number of “ups” and the number of “downs” for each team between each prelims and finals sessions.
“Ups” refer to swims where a swimmer qualified for an A-final, and “downs” refer to swims where a swimmer made a B-Final. This is a good high-level view for coaches to feel out how many points they have a shot at in the finals session. Specific places aren’t set after prelims, and usually change drastically, but swimmers in the A-Final (without DQ) can’t get lower than 8th, and swimmers in the B-Final can’t get higher than 9th.
Overall, Texas did decently on the first day and picked up 1 swimmer in the A-final and 1 swimmer in the B-Final. Keep in mind though that they had less rest coming into this meet than a majority of their competitors, so they need to improve each day, and could have been helped greatly if either of their 9th and 10th seeded 200 IM’ers (Eric Friedland, Nick D’Innocenzo) had moved up into the A-Final.
Stanford picked up three additional A-Finalists, and Arizona gave up two up’s for three downs as compared to seed.
But Cal was the real surprise on day 1. The defending National Champions weren’t expected to contend this year, but after some great performances (especially in the 50 free and 200 IM), they’ve put themselves into the thick of the battle with the most swims yet to come this evening. Their 200 free relay, however, is 18-points behind Texas’ after prelims, so they’ll need to really make up ground there to have these up/down’s hold true.
| 500 free | 200 IM | 50 free | 200 FR | 400 MR | Totals | |
| Texas | 1up/0dn(0up/1dn) | 0up/2dn(none) | 1up/0dn(1up/0dn) | 1 up(1 up) | 1 up(1 up) | 4up/2dn(3up/1dn) |
| Stanford | 2up/2dn(0up/1dn) | 1up/0dn(1up/0dn) | 1up/0dn(0up/1dn) | 1 up(1 up) | 1 up(1 up) | 6up/2dn(3up/2dn) |
| Arizona | 0up/1dn(1up/0dn) | 2up/1dn(2up/0dn) | 0up/1dn(1up/0dn) | 1 up(1 up) | 1 up(1 up) | 4up/3dn(6up/0dn) |
| Cal | 0up/1dn(1up/1dn) | 2up/2dn(0up/1dn) | 1up/2dn(none) | 1 up(1 up) | 1 up(none) | 5up/5dn(2up/2dn) |
| Michigan | 2up/0dn(2up/0dn) | 1up/1dn(1up/1dn) | none(none) | 1 dn(none) | 1 up(1 up) | 4up/2dn(4up/1dn) |
| USC | 1up/1dn(0up/1dn) | 0up/1dn(1up/1dn) | none(1up/0dn) | 1 up(1 up) | 1 dn(1 dn) | 2up/3dn(3up/3dn) |
| Auburn | 1up/0dn(none) | 1up/0dn(1up/0dn) | 1up/2dn(2up/3dn) | 1 up(1 up) | 1 up(1 up) | 5up/2dn(5up/3dn) |
| Florida | none(none) | 1up/0dn(1up/0dn) | 0up/1dn(1up/0dn) | 1 up(1 dn) | 1 dn(none) | 2up/2dn(2up/1dn) |
| Ohio State | none(none) | none(none) | 1up/0dn(1up/0dn) | 1 dn(1 up) | 1 dn(none) | 1up/2dn(2up/0dn) |
| Louisville | none(0up/1dn) | none(none) | none(none) | 1 up(1 dn) | 1 up(1 dn) | 2up/0dn(0up/3dn) |
| Texas A&M | none(none) | none(none) | 0up/1dn(none) | 1 dn(none) | 1 dn(1 dn) | 0up/3dn(0up/1dn) |
| Georgia | 1up/0dn(1up/0dn) | none(none) | 0up/1dn(0up/1dn) | none(none) | 1 dn(none) | 1up/2dn(1up/1dn) |
Biggest surprise from cal- Seth stubblefield in the 50 free. Huge for them.
Yeah, their 50 times, plus the addition of Shields, indicate they can move up a lot in the relay.
Not sure what’s happening with Florida, but it happened last year too. Part of it probably has to do with youth, part of it has to do with resting too much for SEC’s.