On Saturday night, I got home and went to check the results of women's NCAA's. I wondered if it was Stanford or Georgia, or maybe Arizona or Cal. I looked through the event results. I saw the upset of Florida's Gemma Spofforth in the 200 back, Georgia's Chelsea Nauta's 12-place drop in the mile along with the great rise of Cal's Lauren Boyle, A&M's double victory, Elaine Breeden's title in the 200 fly for Stanford, and then I went straight to the 400 free relay; I saw the Stanford victory and then scrolled down to view the final team results. Florida? WHAT?
Arizona - Some big-time stars in Jack Brown, Cory Chitwood, Marcus Titus, and Jean Basson. Great 4x200 relay, but the other relays need drops. Not especially deep. Did not taper for Pac-10's, so they are somewhat of an unknown. They are a co-ed program, and their women had great success following the exact same plan.
Auburn - Deep in sprint freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke, and strong relays (except the 4x200) and they have senior Tyler McGill who is hungry for individual and team titles, but they are very weak in longer distances. They are a co-ed program, and their women did not swim well in Purdue.
California - Deep in the sprints, breaststrokes, IMs. They have huge event favorites Nathan Adrian and Damir Dugonjic and freshman stud Tom Shields. Not especially strong in backstroke. Will be a factor in all the relays. Not a co-ed program.
Texas - Strong swimmers all across the board, butterfly perhaps the weakest. Need Dave Walters and Scott Spann to step it up after fairly disappointing seasons, but the potential is there. Ricky Berens is a consistent top swimmer, while Eric Friedland and Austin Surhoff made big improvements at Big-12's. Could win 4x100 and 4x200 free relays depending on Dave Walters. Not co-ed.
Others - Stanford and Florida both have strong swimmers but not enough depth to crack these four teams.
For event predictions, I'm just going with top three. I have some other thoughts, but I'll keep those to myself. Please comment on these; tell me how stupid I am for thinking whatever!
200 Free Relay
1 - Auburn
2 - California
3 - Texas
500 Free
1 - Jean Basson, Arizona
2 - Conner Dwyer, Florida
3 - David Mosko, Stanford
200 IM
1 - Jack Brown, Arizona
2 - Tyler Clary, Michigan
3 - Shaune Fraser, Florida
50 Free
1 - Nathan Adrian, Cal
2 - Jimmy Feigen, Texas
3 - Josh Schneider, Cincinatti
400 Medley Relay
1 - California
2 - Auburn
3 - Texas
200 Medley Relay
1 - Auburn
2 - California
3 - Texas
400 IM
1 - Tyler Clary, Michigan
2 - Gal Nevo, Georgia Tech
3 - Jack Brown, Arizona
100 Fly
1 - Tyler McGill, Auburn
2 - Tom Shields, Cal
3 - Chris Brady, Michigan
200 Free
1 - Shaune Fraser, Florida
2 - Ricky Berens, Texas
3 - Jean Basson, Arizona
100 Breast
1 - Damir Dugonjic, Cal
2 - Marcus Titus, Arizona
3 - Adam Klein, Auburn
100 Back
1 - Eugene Godsoe, Stanford
2 - Pascal Wollach, Auburn
3 - Hill Taylor, Texas
800 Free Relay
1 - Texas
2 - Arizona
3 - Michigan
1,650 Free
1 - Chad LaTourette, Stanford
2 - Martin Grodski, Georgia
3 - Troy Prinsloo, Georgia
200 Back
1 - Tyler Clary, Michigan
2 - Cory Chitwood, Arizona
3 - Marco Loughran, Florida
100 Free
1 - Nathan Adrian, Cal
2 - Jimmy Feigen, Texas
3 - Gideon Louw, Auburn
200 Breast
1 - Curtis Lovelace, Stanford
2 - Sean Mahoney, Cal
3 - Aaron Opell, Indiana
200 Fly
1 - Mark Dylla, Georgia
2 - Shaune Fraser, Florida
3 - Dan Madwed, Michigan
400 Free Relay
1 - Texas
2 - Auburn
3 - California
My Top Ten:
1 - Texas
2 - California
3 - Arizona
4 - Auburn
5 - Stanford
6 - Florida
7 - Michigan
8 - Virginia
9 - Ohio State
10 - Georgia
I just wanna point out the fact that I really don't have a clue. These are all pure guesses and speculation. I thought about a lot of different swimmers and teams and orders, and this is just what makes the most sense to me. We'll see what actually plays out starting Thursday in Columbus!
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