Men's NCAAs Predictions

Women's NCAAs came to a close yesterday, and it's time to move on to the men's. I am on a big run with predicting, and I don't want to mess up now! For the women's meet, I correctly predicted 13 out of 18 event winners, and I nailed which teams would finish in the top-ten, picking the final positions of seven of them correctly (not counting Auburn finishing in a tie with Tennessee for seventh, rather than eighth, as I predicted). I underestimated USC, as they leapfrogged Stanford and Arizona from my picks. Going back a little bit further, at last year's men's meet I picked places 1-7 and 10 perfectly, and I just switched Michigan and Virginia in the final standings. Let's see how I can do this year.

Thursday:
200 Free Relay
1. Auburn
2. Stanford
3. Cal

500 Free
1. Bobby Bollier, Stanford
2. Connor Jaeger, Michigan
3. Chad La Tourette, Stanford

200 IM
1. Dave Nolan, Stanford
2. Cory Chitwood, Arizona
3. Martin Liivamagi, Cal

50 Free
1. Jimmy Feigen, Texas
2. Vlad Morozov, USC
3. Adam Small, Arizona

400 Medley Relay
1. Arizona
2. Cal
3. Stanford

Friday:
200 Medley Relay
1. Arizona
2. Auburn
3. Texas

400 IM
1. Kyle Whitaker, Michigan
2. Austen Thompson, Arizona
3. Matt Thompson, Stanford

100 Fly
1. Tom Shields, Cal
2. Dan Madwed, Michigan
3. Mathias Gydesen, Cal

200 Free
1. Dax Hill, Texas
2. Dimitri Colupaev, USC
3. David Karasek, UVa

100 Breast
1. Kevin Cordes, Arizona
2. Nolan Koon, Cal
3. Kelley Wyman, Arizona

100 Back
1. Tom Shields, Cal
2. Dave Nolan, Stanford
3. Cory Chitwood, Arizona

800 Free Relay
1. Michigan
2. Texas
3. UVa

1650 Free
1. Chad La Tourette, Stanford
2. Michael McBroom, Texas
3. Sean Ryan, Michigan

200 Back
1. Cory Chitwood, Arizona
2. David Nolan, Stanford
3. Matt Thompson, Stanford

100 Free
1. Vlad Morozov, USC
2. Jimmy Feigen, Texas
3. Dax Hill, Texas

200 Breast
1. Nick D’Innocenzo, Texas
2. Carl Mickelson, Arizona
3. Eric Friedland, Texas

200 Fly
1. Tom Shields, Cal
2. Bobby Bollier, Stanford
3. Dan Madwed, Michigan

400 Free Relay
1. Texas
2. Cal
3. Stanford

The Top Ten:
1. Texas
2. Stanford
3. Arizona
4. Cal
5. Michigan
6. USC
7. Auburn
8. Florida
9. Georgia
10. Ohio State

Texas looked horrible all-season. Their stars have lagged behind at the Texas Invite, in the dual meet with Arizona, and again at the Big-12 Championships. Eddie Reese is one of the best coaches in the world, and he will have them ready to perform. I went into the predictions unsure of whether to put Stanford or Arizona second, but I ended up picking too much Stanford in the top-three to deny the Cardinal. Defending champs Cal lost a big senior class, but Tom Shields is carrying this team on his back. Look for a big performance from him, and if my picks hold true, he will be swimmer of the year. Down year for the SEC, and I think no team finishes higher than seventh. We will see how this all shakes out next week in Federal Way, Washington.