NCAA Men’s Championships Pre-Cut Psych Sheet: Arizona State Owns Top Seed in 12 Events
The pre-cut psych sheets for the upcoming NCAA Men’s Championships were released Tuesday morning. These are not the final entry lists for the meet, which will be held March 27-30 at IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, as only a select number of athletes will be invited to compete in each event, but the top seeds for each event will remain unchanged.
Click here to view the full psych sheet.
The men’s national rankings were rewritten last week at the Pac-12 Championships as Arizona State stormed to the top times in the country in eight out of 13 individual events and four out of five relays, with times including the fastest ever in the 200 medley relay and No. 2 all-time performances in the 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.
Individually, Hubert Kos is the only three-event top seed, with the Hungarian Sun Devil topping the field in both backstrokes after setting an NCAA record over 200 yards at Pac-12s, and he is also seeded first in the 200 IM. His ASU teammate Leon Marchand not opted to race the 200 IM, a race in which he is the two-time defending NCAA champion and fastest swimmer ever by two seconds.
Instead, Marchand will race 500 free, an event in which he set the NCAA record at Pac-12s, forcing swimmers like Sun Devils teammate Zalan Sarkany, Georgia’s Jake Magahey, Florida’s Jake Mitchell, Cal’s Gabriel Jett and Texas’ Luke Hobson to battle for second. Marchand will also race the 400 IM and 200 breaststroke, events in which NCAA records in all three events last season.
Also holding down top seeds for Arizona State is Zalan Sarkany, who is first by a huge margin in the 1650 free while sitting second to Marchand in the 500 free. The last Arizona State swimmer to be seeded first is freshman Ilya Kharun, considered the big favorite in the 200 butterfly.
The sprint events should be among the most exciting of the meet, with the Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks as the defending champion and top seed in the 50 free while Chris Guiliano enters his first NCAA Championships as a favorite after unexpectedly qualifying for the U.S. World Championships team last year. Those swimmers will be joined as top contenders by defending 100 free champion Josh Liendo (Florida) and two-time World Championships silver medalist Jack Alexy (Cal), with Tennessee’s Gui Caribe, Florida’s Mcguire McDuff and the Sun Devils’ Jonny Kulow and Jack Dolan among the big names.
McDuff, meanwhile, is the top seed in the 200 free, where he will try to hold off a group including defending champion Hobson, Jett, Guiliano and Charlie Hawke of Alabama. The other defending champions returning to the field this year are Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan, who will try to defeat Liendo, Crooks and Kharun, among others in the 100 fly, and backstrokers Brendan Burns (100, Indiana) and Destin Lasco (200, Cal), both of whom face tough battles at the national meet given the emergence of Kos.
Schedule of Events and Top-Seeded Swimmers
Wednesday, March 27
- 200 Medley Relay: Arizona State, 1:20.55
- 800 Freestyle Relay: Arizona State, 6:06.14
Thursday, March 28
- 500 Freestyle: Leon Marchand (Arizona State), 4:06.18
- 200 IM: Hubert Kos (Arizona State), 1:38.77
- 50 Freestyle: Jordan Crooks (Tennessee), 17.99
- 200 Freestyle Relay: Florida, 1:14.36
Friday, March 29
- 400 IM: Leon Marchand (Arizona State), 3:34.66
- 100 Butterfly: Josh Liendo (Florida), 43.89
- 200 Freestyle: Macguire McDuff (Florida), 1:30.64
- 100 Breaststroke: Noah Nichols (Virginia) & Liam Bell (Cal), 50.89
- 100 Backstroke: Hubert Kos (Arizona State), 43.75
- 400 Medley Relay: Arizona State, 2:58.49
Saturday, March 30
- 1650 Freestyle: Zalan Sarkany (Arizona State), 14:23.01
- 200 Backstroke: Hubert Kos (Arizona State), 1:35.69
- 100 Freestyle: Chris Guiliano (Notre Dame), 40.62
- 200 Breaststroke: Leon Marchand (Arizona State), 1:48.60
- 200 Butterfly: Ilya Kharun (Arizona State), 1:37.93
- 400 Freestyle Relay: Arizona State, 2:44.23