M Swimmer Connor Jaeger wins NCAA 500yd Freestyle title

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Michigan Swimming adds another NCAA National Champion to the list. JR Connor Jaeger captures the NCAA National Championship in the 500-yard freestyle!

He is the first swimmer since Peter Vanderkaay in 2006 to win the 500yd freestyle national championship. 

JustGoBlue

March 28th, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^

has a good chance to win the meet as a team.  It's nowhere near a given, obviously and several other teams (chiefly Florida and Cal, I believe) will certainly challenge, but Michigan is, I believe, a narrow favorite.  Winning the title (the last day is Saturday) would give the men's swim team 12 national titles as a team, this being their first since 1995.  It would give Michigan their first team NCAA championship since 2010 when the men's gymnastics team took home the top spot.

macdaddy

March 28th, 2013 at 8:33 PM ^

I will gladly take at least one NC a year. Any sport will do and the swimming thing is unbelievable. Michigan is easily the best cold-weather swimming school in the country.

Wolverine Devotee

March 28th, 2013 at 8:44 PM ^

Michigan is well in control. Michigan has 121 points on the day with one event left tonight. They are in first place. Two more days to go. 

JustGoBlue

March 28th, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^

http://results.teamunify.com/nsss/results/NCAA/2013Men/

You can kinda figure it out from the link, but it's a 3 day-meet, prelims each morning, finals of those same events each night.  Swimmers with the 1-8 best times of the prelims are in the "A" final, 9-16 are in the "B" final.  In the "A" final, the winner gets 20 points, 2nd gets 17, 16, 15 etc. to 11.  The top finisher of the "B" final gets 9, then 7,6 all the way down to 1 point for the last place finisher in the "B" final.  The points are for the team competition.  Most points at the end of Saturday wins the NCAA title.  Currently, Michigan leads with 153 points, Cal has 123.5, Auburn 112.5, USC 100 and Texas rounds out the top 5 with 99 points.  Relays get double the point values from the individual competitions, each diving event is also worth 20 points to the winner.

Swimmers qualify for the meet throughout the season, by their best time in an official meet.  Each event has an "A" standard, which automatically qualifies the swimmer for entrance into the prelims and a "B" standard which might qualify that swimmer for the prelims, depending on how many other people end up with an "A" time or a faster "B" time.

That's about all I know, but I think that covers the basics.  As far as I can tell a 30 point lead looks good, but with so many events left, it's far from commanding.  Obviously better up 30 than down 30, but it's not over by a long shot.  One relay DQ would put Michigan in huge trouble.

SFWolverine

March 28th, 2013 at 8:59 PM ^

I am pretty sure that the title is going to come down to Michigan and Cal - I don't think Arizona, Florida, Stanford, or Texas have the depth to compete with those two teams.  Jaeger's win in the 500 is great for UM (as is the fact that 4 other Wolverines scored in that event) and his best event (the 1650) is on Saturday.

Michigan is in good shape after day 1.  Cal dropped a lot of time from their seed times, but that was expected.

USC's Vlad Morozov had the swim of the night - he split 17.86 in the 200 free relay!  I've been around swimming a really long time - I've never heard of anything like that.  Arizona's Kevin Cordes also had a pretty amazing swim - splitting 49.56 in the 100 breast leg of the 400 medley relay!  Arizona won that relay easily, with Cal 2nd and Michigan 3rd.  IMHO, NCAA DI champs is the best swim meet of the year (and that may even include Olympic years).

Go Bue 

 

calvin233

March 28th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^

If there is anyone in the Indianapolis area that wants to check out the final day (and hopefully a Michigan championship), I have an extra ticket to both sessions.  I'll gladly give them away for free.  If anyone is interested, email me at calvin233 at gmail.

calvin233

March 28th, 2013 at 10:19 PM ^

The prelims start at 11, and take 2-3 hours usually.  The finals are at 7, and will probably also take 2-3 hours.  The longest race (1650 free) is on Saturday, so that might make a little longer, but I imagine it'll be done by 9:30.  The tickets for the sessions are separate, so you could come to just the prelims or finals.

SFWolverine

March 29th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^

Today is Cal's best day and Michigan's worst.  If UM can hold on to their lead after today, that's a great sign.  But it isn't all gloom and doom if Cal closes the margin or even takes a small lead after day 2.