Florida’s Gezmis Joins Ranks of Likely NCAA Qualifiers at Last Chance

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LAST CHANCE

• March 1-2, 2019
• Gainesville, Florida
• Full Meet Results (PDF)

After just 1 new swimmer booked a sure-fire NCAA Championship invite on Friday at the University of Florida Last Chance meet, day 2 was more fruitful for the assembled teams in Gainesville.

• Estimating the 2019 NCAA Division I Qualifying Times

Florida senior Brennan Balogh was on the outside-looking-in after his 46.34 in the 100 back on Friday. On Saturday, though, he swam a 1:40.84 in the 200 back. That vaulted him to 15th in the country (pending results at ACCs, Big Tens, and next week’s meets). It’s also under the projected 1:41.01 that Andrew Mering estimates it will take to qualify for NCAAs next year. It’s not quite in ‘lock’ territory yet, but it does put Balogh in position to return to the NCAA Championships for the 3rd time after missing the meet last season. It just missed his best time of 1:40.72 from 2017.

Another Gator, sophomore Erge Gezmis, swam a 1:41.87 in the 200 fly, which just-about locks up his spot at NCAAs. Not only is that under the estimated 1:42.37 to earn an invite, but it’s under the 1:41.89 ‘Lower Bound” estimate. That’s not a guarantee, but it’s a pretty safe place to be.

Alex Lebed, meanwhile, pushed himself squarely onto the bubble in the 200 IM.

Swimmers are allowed to swim an event 3 times in a single Last Chance meet: once in prelims, once in finals, and once in a time trial. The Florida senior took advantage of every one of those swims to improve his national ranking. His best on Friday was a 1:44.27, which is unlikely to earn an invite; but in a Saturday time trial, he improved that to 1:43.78. With an estimated qualifying time of 1:43.88, he’s on the right side of the bubble, for now. That time ranks him tied for 17th nationally with ACC and Big 12 Championship times in the database already for the event. With 6 swimmers faster at Big Tens (not yet in the database), he’ll now have to wait and see what happens at Pac-12s and MACs next week.

Other Close-to-Qualifying Times:

• Florida senior Stanley Wu time trialed the 100 breaststroke in 52.76, cutting a few hundredths off his 52.84 from Friday. Andrew Mering estimates that a 52.6 will qualify for NCAAs.
• Florida sophomore Ethan Beach swam a 1:42.05 in the 200 back finals. Andrew Mering estimates that it will take a 1:41.0 to qualify for NCAAs.
• After William & Mary’s Colin Wright fought for a qualifying time in the 50 free on Friday, and probably came up short, he went after the 100 on Saturday, and likely missed again. His best time of the day was a 42.97 in finals, with an estimated invite time of 42.63.