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Leon Marchand, Matthew Sates, Bjorn Seeliger Lead International Powerhouse Performances on Day 2
The first individual finals session of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships had a young international flavor.
The NCAA meets can feel that way often with so many international stars that come to the U.S. and train with colleges around the country. Most teams have at least one international swimmer, which immediately adds to the globalization of college swimming.
But Thursday night’s finals, the international flavor was even more apparent than normal as the individual swims were three hundredths of a second away from an international sweep.
International underclassmen went 1-1-2 in the three individual events on Thursday at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center, giving the meet a mini Olympic feel.
Georgia’s Matthew Sates, a freshman from South Africa, led off the session with a meet record in the 500 freestyle.
The second event was the 200 IM and Arizona State freshman Leon Marchand, of France, won in another NCAA record, unseating Caeleb Dressel’s mark in the process. Carles Coll Marti, a Virginia Tech sophomore from Spain, finished fourth.
“It is amazing. A few years ago, I was watching Dressel thinking this was insane,” Marchand said. “It is just crazy.”
Finally in the 50 freestyle, Cal sophomore Bjorn Seeliger, of Sweden, took second in the event. Tennessee sophomore and SEC champion Jordan Crooks, of the Cayman Islands, finished fourth. Seeliger took 23rd in Tokyo in the 50 freestyle.
Leon Marchand competed in multiple events in Tokyo, the 400 IM, 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 medley relay. His parents are former Olympians Xavier Marchand and Celine Bonnet. He then had a breakout Pac-12 Championships that put the NCAA swimmers on alert.
He said he didn’t realize the global feel that the NCAA Championships can bring and was thrilled to get that feeling on the deck in Atlanta.
“It is very cool. NCAAs is like an international championships,” Leon Marchand said. “I didn’t know that before coming here. … This is so fast. This is like the Olympics for me. The atmosphere is so great.”
Sates competed in Tokyo last year, finishing 14th in the 200 IM and 32nd in the 100 butterfly. He said he believes international swimmers have an advantage at NCAAs.
“It is definitely cool (having swimmers from all over the world at this meet),” Sates said. “Coming from a different country, I see it as a big advantage actually. Coming here, not having the main focus being NCAA, having that be worlds, it makes the pressure less for this meet. But that makes us a little more calm when we race. I think that shows in the finals.”
There have been some calm and dominating international performances before, but very few in one night like we saw from Sates, Seeliger and Leon Marchand.
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