Texas A&M junior Shaine Casas, who has been dubbed as one of the rising stars in the swimming community for the last 18 months, finally won himself an NCAA title in the 200 IM with a 1:39.53. Casas had been one of the top guys to watch at the 2020 meet before the meet was cancelled but has lived up to expectations and finally has something to show for all the hype surrounding him in short course yards.
Casas used his butterfly and backstroke prowess on the front end to grab the lead early, turning at 46.04 ahead of Texas freshman Carson Foster (46.37) and Missouri’s Danny Kovac (46.78). Casas showed no weakness on breaststroke, splitting a 29.16, the third fastest in the field behind Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez (29.13) and Arizona’s David Schlicht (28.80) as Casas had a victory lap on the freestyle leg.
Casas actually lost his cap on the final breast to freestyle exchange but it did not faze him as he won in the end at 1:39.53 ahead of Cal’s duo of Gonzalez (1:39.99) and Destin Lasco (1:40.01) who both scored best times and moved to eighth and ninth all-time in the event.
“It is incredible. It is definitely an honor to be the first and I hope I won’t be the last,” Shaine Casas said after the race. “I wanted to open the door and show everyone that they can do it, too. The time is cool, but the real thing is getting the job done and taking the gold. It is double the reward (after double the wait with last year’s canceled meet). I felt like I was ready last year … it was even better getting it this time around.”
For Lasco, he came in to this meet at 1:45 for a best and he had the top seeded prelims swim from heat 1.
Texas’ Foster had a best time in fourth at 1:40.99 ahead of Georgia Tech senior Caio Pumputis (1:41.79).
Arizona’s Schlicht (1:41.82), Missouri’s Kovac (1:42.11) and Georgia’s Javier Acevedo (1:42.91) also swam in the championship final.
This is Texas A&M’s first ever NCAA title in men’s swimming and diving as the women have won a few individual titles already.
All-Time Rankings:
- 1:38.13, Caeleb Dressel, Florida, 2018
- 1:38.14, Andrew Seliskar, California, 2019
- 1:38.95, Shaine Casas, Texas A&M, 2020
- 1:39.35, Andreas Vazaios, NC State, 2019
- 1:39.38, David Nolan, Stanford, 2015
- 1:39.54, Jan Switkowski, Florida, 2018
- 1:39.63, John Shebat, Texas, 2019
- 1:39.99, Hugo Gonzalez, California, 2021
- 1:40.01, Destin Lasco, California, 2021
- 1:40.04, Will Licon, Texas, 2016
Event 4 Men 200 Yard IM
=========================================================================
NCAA: N 1:38.13 2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Meet: M 1:38.14 3/28/2019 Andrew Seliskar, California
American: A 1:38.13 2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
U. S. Open: O 1:38.13 2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
Pool: P 1:40.61 3/25/2021 Destin Lasco, California
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
=========================================================================
=== Championship Final ===
1 Casas, Shaine JR TAMU 1:40.74 1:39.53P 20
r:+0.62 21.15 46.04 (24.89)
1:15.20 (29.16) 1:39.53 (24.33)
2 Gonzalez, Hugo JR California 1:40.94 1:39.99P 17
r:+0.66 21.74 46.85 (25.11)
1:15.98 (29.13) 1:39.99 (24.01)
3 Lasco, Destin FR California 1:40.61 1:40.01P 16
r:+0.68 21.79 46.82 (25.03)
1:16.21 (29.39) 1:40.01 (23.80)
4 Foster, Carson FR Texas 1:41.34 1:40.99 15
r:+0.66 21.78 46.37 (24.59)
1:15.97 (29.60) 1:40.99 (25.02)
5 Pumputis, Caio SR GT 1:41.34 1:41.79 14
r:+0.64 21.71 47.22 (25.51)
1:16.71 (29.49) 1:41.79 (25.08)
6 Schlicht, David SO Arizona 1:42.21 1:41.82 13
r:+0.65 22.39 48.23 (25.84)
1:17.03 (28.80) 1:41.82 (24.79)
7 Kovac, Danny JR Missouri 1:42.21 1:42.11 12
r:+0.61 21.13 46.78 (25.65)
1:16.47 (29.69) 1:42.11 (25.64)
8 Acevedo, Javi SR Georgia 1:41.72 1:42.91 11
r:+0.63 22.78 48.26 (25.48)
1:17.79 (29.53) 1:42.91 (25.12)
=== Consolation Final ===
9 Mefford, Bryce SR California 1:42.30 1:41.86 9
r:+0.61 21.87 46.59 (24.72)
1:17.11 (30.52) 1:41.86 (24.75)
10 Foster, Jake SO Texas 1:42.53 1:42.17 7
r:+0.64 22.14 48.19 (26.05)
1:17.22 (29.03) 1:42.17 (24.95)
11 Delakis, Paul SR Ohio St 1:42.73 1:42.21 6
r:+0.67 22.59 48.45 (25.86)
1:17.90 (29.45) 1:42.21 (24.31)
12 Vines, Braden JR Texas 1:43.13 1:42.71 5
r:+0.59 22.58 48.57 (25.99)
1:17.75 (29.18) 1:42.71 (24.96)
13 Carr, Daniel SR California 1:42.69 1:42.73 4
r:+0.63 22.23 47.63 (25.40)
1:17.69 (30.06) 1:42.73 (25.04)
14 Whitley, Reece JR California 1:43.07 1:43.30 3
r:+0.73 22.75 49.04 (26.29)
1:18.24 (29.20) 1:43.30 (25.06)
15 Corbeau, Caspar SO Texas 1:42.73 1:43.85 2
r:+0.69 22.22 48.99 (26.77)
1:18.30 (29.31) 1:43.85 (25.55)
16 Hillis, Dillon JR Florida 1:43.00 1:44.18 1
r:+0.65 22.44 49.12 (26.68)
1:18.82 (29.70) 1:44.18 (25.36)
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 4 1. California 159 2. Texas 112 3. Florida 104 4. Georgia 87 5. Texas A&M 80 6. NC State 61 7. Arizona 41 8. Indiana 36 9. Louisville 34 10. Virginia 32 10. Alabama 32 12. Stanford 29 13. Virginia Tech 24 14. Michigan 22 15. Missouri 16 16. Georgia Tech 14 16. Purdue 14 18. Ohio St 12 19. Notre Dame 9 20. Penn St 8 21. Florida St 4
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