Thursday, March 16, 2017

Don't forget about NCAA swimming


The NCAA women's swimming championships do not time things right (the men don't do much better).  While most of the sporting world is focused on umpteen basketball games, the women hit the pool.   And there are some things going on in the pool that are worth noting.

Tonight is the second night of finals, but the first night was only one event, the 800 free relay, won handily by Stanford (with Katie Ledecky anchoring).  Simone Manuel, Lia Neal, and Ella Eastin preceded her.

Night 2 (tonight as I write) was pretty hot.  As you might expect, Katie Ledecky lowered the American record in the 500 Freestyle (which of course she held) from her 4:25.15 earlier this year to 4:24.06.  She nearly skipped a second, only .07 off of a 4:23.  Sheesh.

Kathleen Baker of Cal won the 200 individual medley, just .04 seconds shy of setting a new American record in that.

Simone Manuel won the 50 freestyle in 21.17, a new NCAA and pool record.  So what's the American record?   21.12 by Abby Weitzeil.

Cal looked like it had won the 400 medley relay, with Kathleen Baker leading off in 49.80 for a new American record in the 100 backstroke, but it turned out that their anchor leg swimmer (Weitzeil) went early, disqualifying them.

Day 3 should be just as fast.



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