NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship: Day one – Swimming News
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship is being hosted at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Centre, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from March 24-26.
First session on day one of the championship will allow the teams to battle in the preliminary rounds of the 200-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard Individual Medley (IM), 50-yard freestyle and the 400-yard medley relay.
The session began with the 200-yard freestyle relay, where 19 teams competed with each other to position themselves in the top eight, to qualify to the finals. Auburn University took the lead from all competitors in a time of 1:15.50 minutes. Stanford University
and University of Texas followed them for the second and the third fastest spots, in a time of 1:15.84 and 1:16.66 minutes, respectively.
The next event was the 500-yard freestyle, where Matt McLean topped 45 swimmers to qualify as the fastest swimmer into the final. He finished the race in a time of 4:12.26 minutes and was comfortably ahead of the second and third fastest qualifiers, Bobb
Bollier and Conor Dwyer, who touched the finishing wall in a time of 4:14.84 and 4:15.55 minutes, respectively.
In the Men’s 200-yard IM, Stanford’s Austin Staab emerged as the fastest qualifying swimmer in a time of 1:42.91 minutes. He only two seconds behind the NCAA record of 1:40.49 minutes set by Bradley Ally in 2009. Bill Cregar and Cory Chitwood appeared as
the second and third fastest swimmers in a qualifying time of 1:43.21 and 1:43.55 minutes.
The next event was the 50-yard freestyle, which is the toughest event of the championship. Cal Berkeley’s Nathan Adrian clocked a time of 18.76 seconds to qualify as the fastest swimmer into the finals. He engaged in a close fight with second finisher, Adam
Brown, who touched the wall in 18.91 seconds and was followed by Alex Coville in a time of 19.01 seconds.
In the 400-yard medley relay, Texas dominated the swim to obtain the top qualifying spot in a time of 3:05.61 minutes. The team was ahead of Florida and Ohio State, who touched the wall in a time of 3:07.27 and 3:07.68 minutes respectively, to qualify as
the second and third fastest teams.
The second session of the day will host the finals of the same events, to point out the leading team in the competition.
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