The Ohio State men rolled through their home invite wire-to-wire against a bit lighter of competition than their women faced, and in particular they looked much deeper than expected – in many cases, the guys on their B-relay were almost as fast, or faster, than the guys on the A-relays who have big expectations already.
The Florida men are sort of the opposite. Though Bradley deBorde looked very good for this time of year, the Gator men haven't been able to expand their sprint-stroke group the way that Gregg Troy's women have been able to.
Men's 200 Medley Relay
This first relay was a great example of how good Ohio State's depth looks. Though it's possible that they've rested different guys differently for this invite, their B-relay almost beat their A, with a 1:26.79 on the “A” and a 1:26.93 on the “B”.
The top splits from the two were Garrett Trebilcock (21.73 – back), Keanu Stevenson (24.13 – breast), Tim Phillips (20.67 – fly), and Jason Schnur (19.27 – free). Among those, Trebilcock was the big surprise, though seniors Zach Birnbich (20.80 on the fly) and Zach Holmes (19.53 on the free) from the B-relay almost clipped their much more credentialed teammates on their respective legs.
Florida was 3rd in 1:27.38, with deBorde anchoring in 19.21.
Men's 400 IM
The Gators will be glad to have Sebastien Rousseau back this year to lead their still very-young IM group: a group that across-the-board looked pretty good at this meet as they took a 1-4 finish. Rousseau led the way in 3:41.69, followed by Dan Wallace (3:44.23), Connor Signorin (3:45.60), and Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (3:48.11). Those times are across-the-board faster than they were at this same meet last year in the fall semester; in the case of Wallace and Signorin, by 6-or-more seconds.
Matt Elliott was in the B-Final in 3:50.22, which is about where he was last year, which broke up the trend a bit.
The fastest non-Gator was Ohio State sophomore Steven Zimmerman in 5th in 3:49.15. That's a lifetime best by 6 seconds ahead of his swim at Big Ten's last year, and a nice recovery from a weak relay leadoff in the medley just before.
Men's 100 Fly
Ohio State's Tim Phillips is back this season, and is already bringing significant points to the Buckeyes with a 47.03 win in the 100 fly here. That's a good mid-season time for him, though it only ranks him 11th in the country this year – if the Buckeyes want to be top 10 at NCAA's, they need a top-8 finish from Phillips in this 100 fly.
Wisconsin's Daniel Lester, who like many Australians should finally be able to focus on college swimming this year, was 2nd in 47.27. Ohio State's Tamas Gercsak and Garrett Trebilcock (47.4′s for both) took 3rd-and-4th in the A-Final.
Florida's Marcin Cieslak was a bit too casual in the prelims of this race which left him in the B-Final, though he ended up with the fastest overall time in 46.99.
Men's 200 Free
Polish swimmer Pawel Werner was the big pickup for Florida this off-season, and he immediately becomes the Gators' best 200 freestyler. He demonstrated that with a 1:34.81 to win the individual 200 here by over a second.
Most of the rest of the Gators' relay, though, won't come from guys who swim this 200 individually; that allowed Ohio State to take the next four spots with Zach Holmes (1L35.83), Alex Miller (1:36.36), Michael Disalle (1:36.74), and Rowan Williams (1:37.49) finishing back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
Though Holmes is the highest-ranked nationally of those swims at just 15th, the Buckeyes are one of only five teams in the country to have four guys ranked in the top 40 of the event so far (along with Michigan, Florida, Stanford and Arizona).
Men's 100 Breast
This final went 10 strong with Florida Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes (and only one of them a junior and one of them a senior, to boot). The Buckeyes' Keanu Stevenson was the victor in 54.00, though he was almost run down by the more distance-based Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez on the final 25. Solaeche-Gomez wound up 2nd in 54.16, followed by his teammate and classmate Matthew Elliott in 54.60.
Buckeye junior Dak Stone was 4th in 54.84, followed by freshman DJ MacDonald in 55.03.
Men's 100 Back
This race saw another Buckeye surprise backstroker as Connor McDonald (who gave OSU a third sub-23 backstroker on the 200 medley relay) won in 47.46. McDonald took a clean start and rode it to a wire-to-wire victory in this 100, touching out teammates Garrett Trebilcock and Steven Zimmerman (who were 47.77 and 48.06, respectively).
Zimmerman led off both medley relays, though the results of this meet might cause the coaching staff to shift his focus toward the longer events (like the 400 IM where he was so good) and have McDonald or Trebilcock focus on those sprint backstrokes. That spot was the biggest question mark coming into the season as well.
Men's 800 Free Relay
The Florida Gator's stuck a great four together in this 800 free relay and came out with a win in 6:21.84, breaking a five-year old pool record held by a Michigan squad that included three US National Teamers (Bobby Savulich, Matt Patton, and Alex Vanderkaay).
This included a 1:34.77 leadoff from Sebastien Rousseau and a swimmer from each class (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior) en route to the fastest time in the country this year by a full second.
Ohio State didn't look quite as good in this relay as they did in the individuals and finished 2nd in 6:27.76, with North Carolina 3rd in 6:31.23.
Men's 1650 Free
For those who were worried about Florida's ability to develop distance freestylers, freshman Arthur Frayler seems to have given us a strong first piece of evidence. He won this 1650 in 14:54.65, which is only the second time in his career that he's broken 15 minutes and ranks him #4 in the country through the completion of the major fall invites.
Florida's Carlos Omana was 2nd in 15:03.47, followed by senior Jason Taylor in 15:06.55. North Carolina's was just behind them with a time of 15:07.69. Indiana senior Ryan Hinshaw also made an appearance in this race, finishing 7th in 15:16.70, and seems to be recovering from an injury-plagued junior season.
Men's 200 Back
Ohio State's Steven Zimmerman started out his third day strong in the 200 backstroke, reaffirming that his best path to success this year is likely through the longer events. He put up a 1:42.85 in the 200 back. He was a hair faster in prelims to rank 4th in the Big Ten this year.
Wisconsin's Drew Teduits was the runner-up in this final in 1:42.89, though his prelims time ranks him ahead of Zimmerman as third in the conference.
Men's 100 Free
After Florida's Bradley deBorde won a barn-burner of a 50 free on day 1 of this meet, Ohio State's Jason Schnur flipped the tables and won an even closer 100 with a 43.31 to deBorde's 43.43 on Sunday. Interestingly, even though deBorde was four-tenths faster on the individual 50, it was Schnur who pushed the pace early in this race.
That left his Gator opponent with some ground to make up on the last half, and though deBorde was a touch better on the last 25, Schnur held him off in what was a very tight race throughout.
Florida's Pawel Werner was 3rd in 43.78 followed by Zach Holmes again of the Buckeyes in 43.92.
This was another A-final made up solidly of Florida and Ohio State swimmers, though UNC went 1-2-3 in the B-Final. That included a 44.53 lifetime best from freshman Logan Heck.
Men's 200 Breaststroke
Florida sophomores Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez and Matthew Elliott were tight at the halfway mark of this 200 breaststroke, and while both slowed on the back 100 (pretty standard in this event), Solaeche was able to keep his third and fourth splits under 30 seconds while Elliott didn't.
That allowed the Spanish swimmer to pull away from his American amigo and win in a new Meet Record of 1;55.10, with Elliott taking 2nd in 1:57.72.
Ohio State's Dak Stone (1:58.75) and Chris Cowley (1:59.24) were 3rd and 4th.
Wisconsin's top recruit John Bushman, seemingly the biggest yet early in the Whitney Hite era, was 6th in 1:59.49. That's within a tenth of his best time already.
Men's 200 Fly
This is an event that the Gators are going to be really good in at this year's NCAA Championships, and their two All-Americans showed up early. Marcin Cieslak won the race in 1:42.88, an NCAA Automatic Qualifying time, and Sebastien Rousseau was 2nd in 1:43.01, just missing the standard for automatic qualifying, but a swim that should be good enough to ensure a spot in Indy none-the-less. Those times rank them 3rd-and-4th in the country behind only a pair of Cal Bears.
Ohio State's Tamas Gercsak was 3rd in 1:44.55, which was also faster than the old Meet Record, and Wisconsin's Dan Lester was 4th in 1:45.05.
UNC got one of their best swims in this race as well from Tom Luchsinger, who was 5th in 1:45.16. Don't be put off by him being at a 1:45; the 10th-place finisher from last year's NCAA Championships always seems to hit his best two swims at ACC's and NCAA's.
Men's 400 Free Relay
Ohio State, bookended by seniors Jason Schnur (43.67) and Zach Holmes (42.92) won the men's 100 free in 2:53.15. Holmes overcame a strong anchor by Florida's Matthew Curby (43.64) for a come-from-behind victory in this race, once again demonstrating how great he has been throughout his career on relays.
For the Buckeyes to go that fast without Phillips on the A-relay is a good sign; he swam instead on their B with a split of 44.57.
The Gators took 2nd in 2:53.72 and UNC was 3rd in 2:57.17
Final Team Scores:
1. Ohio State (1,306)
2. Florida (997.5)
3. North Carolina (575.5)
4. Wisconsin (400)
5. Indiana (305 – partial squad)
6. Stanford (97 – divers)
7. Purdue (65 – divers)