2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:
- Championship Central
- Live Results
Going along with the IM events, Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez will race the 200 breast for his third event at the 2021 NCAA Men’s Championships.
Gonzalez time trialed the 200 breast at 2021 Pac-12s, hitting a 1:53.53 for a new official best, which ranks him 22nd on the psych sheets.
At 2020 Pac-12s, Gonzalez swam the 200 breast during the 200 IM prelims, taking the intentional DQ, and posted a 1:51.63– that’s his unofficial best, which seeded him #4 for the 2020 NCAAs.
While Gonzalez is higher-ranked this season in the 200 back with his 1:39.18, which has him #4 in the country, Cal is already pretty loaded in that event. No Gonzalez in the 200 back is no problem for the Cal backstroke group– freshman Destin Lasco is seeded #2 on the psychs, with seniors Daniel Carr and Bryce Mefford seeded #3 and #4, respectively. Meanwhile, Bryce Mefford’s younger brother Colby Mefford, a sophomore, is seeded at #10, with another sophomore, Sebastian Somerset, holding #11.
Meanwhile, Cal had nobody invited right now in the 200 breast besides the favorite to win it, Reece Whitley. But with Gonzalez in the 200 breast instead of the 200 back, it gives the Bears likely two A-finalists in the 200 breast, while they have three near-locks for the 200 back A-final in addition to C. Mefford and Somerset, who could sneak into the A-final.
In 2018, while at Auburn, Gonzalez stuck with both IM events and the 200 back at SECs and NCAAs. After resurfacing at Cal, Gonzalez raced both IMs and the 200 back at 2020 Pac-12s and 2021 Pac-12s. This will be his first major collegiate meet where he races the 200 breast prelims as scheduled, rather than time-trialing the event or swimming it in the prelims of a different event.