NCAA Men’s Championships: Jordan Crooks’ 18.25 Leads 50 Free Prelims
Jordan Crooks has led the 50 freestyers all season. He’ll add the top seed in the NCAA final to that list of domination.
The Tennessee sophomore led the way in the morning prelims at the University of Minnesota with a time of 18.25, swimming away from the field in the final heat of seven in the morning. He led the nation this year with a time of 17.93 seconds.
Joining him in the A final are a pair of Cal swimmers, with Bjorn Seeliger second in 18.46 and Jack Alexy fifth in 18.77. Defending champion Brooks Curry earned his lane in the A final in fourth in 18.72, a spot behind Florida’s Josh Liendo. It’ll be four from the SEC with Gui Caribe of Tennessee also in there. Arizona State’s Jack Dolan and Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan tied for seventh.
Seeliger was the silver medalist last year with Crooks and Virginia’s Matt Brownstead tying for third. (Brownstead found himself out of the circle-seeded heats this year but made it back in 15th place.)
Ramadan won the first circle-seeded heat in 18.87, .02 up on NC State’s Noah Henderson, who tied with Indiana’s Van Mathias for ninth. Seeliger blitzed the next-to-last heat in 18.46 to best Liendo.
On the team front, Texas is without a finalist. Arizona State missed out with Jonny Kulow tied for 17th; he’s even with Florida’s Macguire McDuff, and the Gators also had Alberto Mestre and Adam Chaney tie for 19th. (Chaney won the B final last year.) Cal snuck Liam Bell into the B final. It took 19.04 to get a second swim.
Event 5 Men 50 Yard Freestyle
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NCAA: N 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Meet: M 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
American: A 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
U. S. Open: O 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Pool: P 17.63 3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Name Year School Seed Prelims
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=== Preliminaries ===
1 Crooks, Jordan SO Tennessee 17.93 18.25
r:+0.62 8.81 18.25 (9.44)
2 Seeliger, Bjorn JR California 18.87 18.46
r:+0.65 8.80 18.46 (9.66)
3 Liendo, Josh FR Florida 18.35 18.54
r:+0.60 8.93 18.54 (9.61)
4 Curry, Brooks SR LSU 18.94 18.72
r:+0.61 8.93 18.72 (9.79)
5 Alexy, Jack SO California 19.13 18.77
r:+0.62 9.03 18.77 (9.74)
6 Santos, Guilherme FR Tennessee 18.79 18.81
r:+0.61 9.04 18.81 (9.77)
7 Ramadan, Youssef JR VT 18.82 18.87
r:+0.56 9.17 18.87 (9.70)
7 Dolan, Jack SR ASU 18.86 18.87
r:+0.66 9.08 18.87 (9.79)
