NCAA Men’s Championships Pre-Cut Psych Sheet: Leon Marchand Leads the Way in Three 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 22-25 at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, 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.
Last year’s NCAA Swimmer of the Meet, Arizona State’s Leon Marchand, will be the big favorite in all three of his individual events after a brilliant Pac-12 Championships where he swam the second-fastest time ever in the 200 IM before breaking NCAA records in the 400 IM and 200 breaststroke. The Sun Devils’ Grant House is the top seed in the 200 freestyle, an event where he was runnerup last year, while Marchand and House have helped Arizona State clinch the pre-meet top seed in the 800 free relay, where a showdown with Florida and Texas awaits.
The only other swimmer to claim the top seed in multiple events is Cal’s Gabriel Jett, who enters in pole position in the 500 free and 200 butterfly. Jett will face Georgia’s Jake Magahey and Florida’s Jake Mitchell in the 500 free before a battle with Indiana’s Brendan Burns and ASU’s Alex Colson in the 200 fly. The defending-national-champion Cal Golden Bears will have a superb final day with Destin Lasco entering as the top seed in the 200 backstroke (where he will aim to defend a national title), Bjorn Seeliger seeded first in the 100 free and a top-ranked 400 free relay squad.
The Florida Gators are seeded first in the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay after finishing just off long-lasting NCAA records at the SEC Championships last month. Aleksas Savickas (100 breast) and Adam Chaney (100 back) also enter in the No. 1 spot. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks will try to put a scare into Caeleb Dressel’s legendary 50 free record of 17.63 after he joined Dressel in the sub-18 club at the SEC meet. Crooks and his Volunteer teammates enter first in the 200 medley relay.
Other swimmers entering seeded first include Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan in the 100 fly and Kentucky’s Levi Sandidge in the 1650 free. Meanwhile, the list of swimmers defending national crowns from last year includes Marchand in the 200 IM and 200 breast, Lasco in the 200 back, Burns in the 200 fly, LSU’s Brooks Curry in the 50 free and 100 free, Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez in the 400 IM, Stanford’s Andrei Minakov in the 100 fly, Minnesota’s Max McHugh in the 100 breast and NC State’s Kacper Stokowski in the 100 back.
Notably, the Texas men do not have any top-seeded swimmers or relays or defending national champions, but it would be foolish to discount Eddie Reese’s Longhorns completely. Texas junior Carson Foster is looming in the 200 and 400 IM after he placed second in the long course meters versions of those events at last year’s World Championships behind Marchand. Foster was also second in the 200 back at last season’s NCAAs. Caspar Corbeau should be a big threat for Texas in the breaststroke events.
Typically, the number of swimmers invited to the national meet in each event is somewhere between 36 and 41 invitees, depending on the number of swimmers entered above the cut-line in more than one event, and swimmers invited in one event may compete in other races where they have B-cuts. The official psych sheet (including cut-lines in each event and a list of alternates in order of priority) will be released Wednesday.
Schedule of Events and Top-Seeded Swimmers
Wednesday, March 22
- 200 Medley Relay: Tennessee, 1:21.43
- 800 Freestyle Relay: Arizona State, 6:06.30
Thursday, March 23
- 500 Freestyle: Gabriel Jett (Cal), 4:09.66
- 200 IM: Leon Marchand (Arizona State), 1:37.81
- 50 Freestyle: Jordan Crooks (Tennessee), 17.93
- 200 Freestyle Relay: Florida, 1:14.19
Friday, March 24
- 400 IM: Leon Marchand (Arizona State), 3:31.57
- 100 Butterfly: Youssef Ramadan (Virginia Tech), 43.93
- 200 Freestyle: Grant House (Arizona State), 1:30.67
- 100 Breaststroke: Aleksas Savickas (Florida), 50.73
- 100 Backstroke: Adam Chaney (Florida), 44.17
- 400 Medley Relay: Florida, 2:59.48
Saturday, March 25
- 1650 Freestyle: Levi Sandidge (Kentucky), 14:31.47
- 200 Backstroke: Destin Lasco (Cal), 1:36.94
- 100 Freestyle: Bjorn Seeliger (Cal), 40.90
- 200 Breaststroke: Leon Marchand (Arizona State), 1:47.67
- 200 Butterfly: Gabriel Jett (Cal), 1:39.27
- 400 Freestyle Relay: Cal, 2:45.67
