USC star butterflier Maclin Davis, a former National High School Record holder, will miss the NCAA Championship season after undergoing back surgery in late January.
Davis was absent from the psych sheets for the Pac-12 Championships when they were released today, as he has been for much of the Trojans’ season. He swam only two meets for USC this year, including a 49.28 in the 100 fly in October against UCSB.
Davis was slated to be the Trojans’ top sprint butterflier this season, after ending last year as the 6th-best in the event in the Pac-12. He swam the butterfly leg on both of the team’s medley relays at NCAA’s last season, as well as a leg on their 200 free relay (which was DQ’ed at NCAA’s).
Davis says that he’s hoping to return by the end of the school year, but that there’s no definitive timeline on his return to action.
In the short-term, the USC butterfly group is still in fantastic shape. They have four of the conference’s 9 fastest in the 100 fly so far this season, including sophomore Dylan Carter who has been 46.16, which places him 15th in the country.
They will miss him more for some extra depth in the sprint free relays, as well as for his individual scoring at the conference level and probable individual scoring at NCAA’s (he was 17th in the 100 fly last year).
I believe the NCAA Rules state the threshold as competing in less than 10% (or 10% or less) of the team’s official competition schedule qualifies for a Medical Red Shirt, with a qualifying medical reason for missing those competitions.
Will he be granted a medical red shirt for this season since his last meet was only in October? In football, if you only play 3 games (out of 12), you can be granted a medical red shirt for the season.