2018 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 21 – Saturday, March 24
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center – Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Central Time)
- Defending champion: Texas (3x) (results)
- Psych Sheet
- Championship Central
- Event-by-Event Previews
- Team Power Rankings: Final Edition
- Live Stream
- Live Results
Louisville freshman Nicolas Albiero has continued to make small, but steady, improvements all week, and tonight he continued that trend by holding seed and shaving about two-tenths of a second off of his 200 fly time to win the B-final of the 2018 NCAAs in 1:40.85.
That time improves on the 1:41.04 he swam this morning, which itself took down the 17-18 National Age Group Record he sat last month at ACCs.
Interestingly, Albiero remained incredibly consisted in his relative ranking in this event all week. He came in seeded 9th, ended up 9th in this morning’s preliminaries, albeit with a a time that we’re pretty sure would have made every other 200 fly A-final in NCAA history, and won the B-final tonight to finish 9th overall.
Here’s a comparison of his splits:
| Finals | Prelims | ACCs | |
| 1st 50 | 22.66 | 22.47 | 22.94 |
| 2nd 50 | 25.96 | 26.06 | 26.14 |
| 3rd 50 | 26.08 | 26.10 | 25.98 |
| 4th 50 | 26.15 | 26.41 | 26.02 |
| Total Time | 1:40.85 | 1:41.04 | 1:41.08 |
Albiero took it out just a little more conservatively this evening than he did this morning, allowing Towson’s Jack Saunderson to set the pace through the first 150. But Albiero out split Saunderson 26.15 to 26.80 over the final 50 to win by just 0.02s.
With only diving left to go, Louisville sits in 9th place overall, and should be locked into a top ten finish.
That was likely Albiero’s last individual swim as an age grouper, as he’ll be turning his attention to long course season once this meet concludes tonight. Last year, he represented Team USA at the World Junior Championships.