2008 NCAA Div I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships

Having swum for Eddie Reese for five years, I know he would not condone "shutting it down" in a final, just because you weren't going to win. I doubt Ricky was thinking of his 200 fly when he cruised the last 50 of the relay. Go all out and give it your best shot, then make sure to have a proper warmdown. The next day will take care of itself (in Eddie's words). And I doubt Eddie let that action go without saying something. I imagine Ricky being grabbed by the elbow and given the Eddie Reese Look.

I don't think Arizona will get caught and they will win the NCAA title and this will be a sweep of both titles this year. The biggest shock/upset of the day was Ben Hensen not making the final in the 200 Back and missed making 8th place by .01 seconds. I saw the race he had with Patrick Shirk at the Big Ten Championships when he went 1:40.85 to Shirk's 1:40.87. Seeing as how Ben did a :44.72 and being only .12 off Ryan Lochte's record of :44.60, I was going to pick him tonight. Now I going to pick Shirk to give Penn State its first NCAA title. The question is will he go under 1:40 tonight. In the 100 Free, history will be set tonight as Cesar Cielo will be the first man to go under :41.00 and the question is will he win by more than a second. Its been a long time since a barrier has been broken. In 1975, it was Andy Coan going under :44.00, in 1981 it was Rowdy Gaines going under :43.00, and in 1985 it was Matt Biondi going under :42.00, so this is long overdue. In the 200 *** I am picking Scott Span to win and I wonder if he can go under 1:52.50 and be near the American Record. He has dropped his time by 3 seconds and at the Big Ten Championship he went 1:53.17 to break the great school record by Mike Barrowman,which was an American Record for over 10 years. He still has 2 years of college left and he is a swimmer to watch in this event at Olympic Trials. In the 200 Fly, I think the 17 year old NCAA Record of 1:41.78 by Melvin Stewart is going to be broken tonight by a Georgia swimmer. Which one I am not sure. I saw Mark Dylla go a 1:42.23 at the SEC Championships on TV and he looked real good. But his teammate Gil Stoval qualified today with a 1:41.86 so he could win too. I see a 1-2 finish by Georgia in this event. In the 400 Free Relay, its hard to pick against Auburn with sprinters like Cielo and Puninski. The question is can they break there record of 2:46.86

Texas' anchor swimmer gave up on the last 50 and cruised in. He couldn't beat Arizona and was way ahead of third place so he just gave up. If he had finished properly I think Texas would have finished in about 6:13. There'd be no point for him gunning the whole way Nilo is too fast for Ricky to catch him. He had to swim the next day and the 200 Fly is more important.

Another big question is can the Texas men swim to their potential? They did not swim well last year at NCAAs. But Texas was super-fast at the Big12s. They are the deepest, fastest, group of 200 freestylers anywhere. I don't know what happened here but they went about 6 seconds slower than the 6:10.55 with a 6:16.54 when they set the American and US Open Record. But this was not as bad as the Auburn women in the 800 Free Relay. They went nearly 10 seconds slower than when they set the American and US Open Record. Kirk said it was a complete meltdown.

I don't know what happened here but they went about 6 seconds slower than the 6:10.55 with a 6:16.54 when they set the American and US Open Record. But this was not as bad as the Auburn women in the 800 Free Relay. They went nearly 10 seconds slower than when they set the American and US Open Record. Kirk said it was a complete meltdown. Texas' anchor swimmer gave up on the last 50 and cruised in. He couldn't beat Arizona and was way ahead of third place so he just gave up. If he had finished properly I think Texas would have finished in about 6:13.

Wow at the 800 free relay. Was expecting Texas to win easily. Was happy that Dave Walters won the 200 free. Going into day three, it is looking bleak for my Horns...but Hook 'Em anyways!!!

In the 100 Free, history will be set tonight as Cesar Cielo will be the first man to go under :41.00 and the question is will he win by more than a second. Its been a long time since a barrier has been broken. In 1975, it was Andy Coan going under :44.00, in 1981 it was Rowdy Gaines going under :43.00, and in 1985 it was Matt Biondi going under :42.00, so this is long overdue. Good picking Skip.

Saturday night was very exciting, despite the fact Zona had the meet locked up. The 1650 started things off right with the two Georgia swimmers letting Kleuh of Texas take the early lead then put the hammer down with about 500 yards remaining. I really thought Rouault would break Thompson's record. The 200 fly was great, too. Another 1-2 for Georgia. Cielo's 100 free speaks for itself. I swear that guy must be attached to an invisible stretch cord out there :) I know as a swimmer I'm supposed to hate diving, but I have to say the platform diving was very exciting, too! Then Arizona's anchor managing to gun down the Auburn guy in about the last 5 yards of the relay was a fitting conclusion to the meet. I didn't think there was any way Arizona would win that.

here's cesar's 18.47 relay lead off in lane 3 I love the enthusiasm of the folks around the video camera when they see his time if you have a fast connection you can click for HIGHER QUALITY wish the person used a tripod or monopod to improve the camera's stability www.youtube.com/watch

Since that was the lead-off leg it will count as the new NCAA/Meet/Open record, right? Looking at the splits I was amazed how much faster he swam than his teammates, who all had the advantage of rolling relay starts. In fact, nobody on any of the teams in the finals had a split anywhere close to his leadoff leg (the only other sub-19 legs were about 0.5 second slower). Skip (who is lucky to swim 18 seconds for a 25...)