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Prelims: Day Two at Men's NCAAs
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Junior Scot Robison earned a berth in the finals of the 200 free Saturday as day two of the 2010 NCAA Championships continued. Virginia’s 200 medley relay team also secured a spot in the consolation finals.
Preliminaries were held in the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back. The meet, which runs through Sunday, is being held at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on Ohio State’s campus.
Live coverage of the 2010 Men’s NCAA Championships can be found by clicking here. Finals begin at 7 p.m. this evening. The 800 free relay will also be contested in a timed final tonight; there were no preliminaries held for that event.
Robison, the top seed in the 200 free, placed fourth in the preliminary session with a time of 1:33.63.
“I think Scot has a chance to win, I really do,” Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said. “If we puts together the perfect 200 freestyle he has a chance to win tonight. That’s how we are going to prepare, to try to win a national title.”
Virginia’s 200 medley relay team began the morning with a spot in the consolation finals. Eric Olesen, John Azar, Robison and Peter Geissinger teamed up to finish in 1:26.75, the fastest mark of the season for Virginia in the event. UVa’s seed time of 1:27.63 was acquired at the ACC Championships.
“We may make some changes to the medley relay again and shuffle our lineup there,” Bernardino said. “We’ll see what can come from that. We were happy to get that relay in for some points; we were over a second faster from ACCs and that was significant.”
Four other Cavaliers joined Robison in the 200 free. Matt McLean earned a 19th-place finish with a time of 1:35.18. Azar was 26th overall (1:36.23) while Taylor Smith was 44th (1:38.11) and John Snawerdt was 48th (1:38.79).
“We were hoping we could do a little bit better than we do this morning,” Bernardino said. “We have to come back tonight and take a look at where we are and what we have to do. The 800 free relay has to step up.”
Freshman Tom Casey, the lone newcomer for the men at these championships, placed 32nd in the 100 breast. He clocked a time of 54.73. Olesen finished 26th in the 100 back with a mark of 47.70.
Geissinger was disqualified in the 100 fly for an arms underwater recovery on his finish.