Having been busy tearing up carpet and padding, etc, and preparing the house and dinner for a birthday feast (my wife’s birthday), I hadn’t much time to pay attention to the last bits of the swimming season.
My only prediction for the day was the kind that doesn’t count: the kind that no one else hears you make. I predicted (to myself) that Ryan Lochte would break his own 200 yard backstroke record, and of course that he did. The new record is 1:37.68, which is about six-tenths of a second faster than his old record. Call it about three and a half feet improvement at the touch. Lochte also had the second-fastest leadoff leg in the 4×100 free relay, which is an amazing stat given that he’s not really considered to be a world-class sprint freestyle swimmer. Overall Lochte had an outstanding meet, setting four NCAA records, winning three individual events and contributing greatly to Florida’s place in the team standings. If Lochte doesn’t get the MVP award (can’t recall offhand what it’s called exactly) then there is no justice.
Other outstanding swimming today had Michigan senior Davis Tarwater scare Melvin Stewart’s fourteen-year-old 200 butterfly record; missed it by 0.06 seconds. Georgia sophomore Sebastien Rouault also put the scare on Chris Thompson’s record in the 1650 with a 14:29.43. He’s got 2.8 seconds to go, but he’s also got a couple of years in which to bring the time down.
Purdue (my alma mater) had an unusually high scoring day, with breaststroker Giordan Pogioli grabbing fifth place in the 200 breaststroke finals, and diver Steven LoBue earning third place in the platform diving. LoBue also took sixth on the 3m board and seventh on the 1m board.
I don’t have access to all of the final team scores, but Auburn took first, Arizona second, Stanford third, Texas fourth and Florida fifth. Purdue placed sixteenth overall with 59 total points.