03-22-2018, 07:33 PM
At the close of Day 2 Stanford is tucked in comfortably @ #6. They have been consistently out performing the pre-meet form chart, but do not seem to have any realistic chance of finishing higher, though that will be an improvement of their pre-meet prediction of 8th. Sixth place points for the Directors Cup would not be chump change!
For me, the most striking part of the first two days has been Florida's Caeleb Dressel providing Usain Bolt like performances in the sprints. The flat start record for the 50 free was 18.20 to start the meet. For a heads-up, Dressel slipped a 17.97 3rd leg into Florida's 3rd place qualifying 200 Free Relay. A relay start is worth four to 8 tenths of second depending on how close you cut it, and FL was appropriately conservative in their starts, so, interesting but not shocking. Then he cruised to a US Open/NCAA record 18.11 in the 50 free prelims, and folks really started taking notice.
In today's finals he led off the winning FL 200 free relay with a stunning 17.81; resetting his own US/NCAA record. Two events later he destroyed the field and the record in the 50 free final, winning the race by a body length in 17.63; basically like knocking 6 tenths of a second off the World Record for 200 meters in track. Wow.
What looked like a Texas/Kal shootout has moved into a five way tussle with Florida, North Carolina State and BIG Champs Indiana getting big points in relays and sprints that were not expected. An exciting meet in what appears to be a very fast pool!
For me, the most striking part of the first two days has been Florida's Caeleb Dressel providing Usain Bolt like performances in the sprints. The flat start record for the 50 free was 18.20 to start the meet. For a heads-up, Dressel slipped a 17.97 3rd leg into Florida's 3rd place qualifying 200 Free Relay. A relay start is worth four to 8 tenths of second depending on how close you cut it, and FL was appropriately conservative in their starts, so, interesting but not shocking. Then he cruised to a US Open/NCAA record 18.11 in the 50 free prelims, and folks really started taking notice.
In today's finals he led off the winning FL 200 free relay with a stunning 17.81; resetting his own US/NCAA record. Two events later he destroyed the field and the record in the 50 free final, winning the race by a body length in 17.63; basically like knocking 6 tenths of a second off the World Record for 200 meters in track. Wow.
What looked like a Texas/Kal shootout has moved into a five way tussle with Florida, North Carolina State and BIG Champs Indiana getting big points in relays and sprints that were not expected. An exciting meet in what appears to be a very fast pool!