2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Team – points after Day 3 (projected points after Day 4 – no diving) Texas – 368 (496.5) An Uber-competitive 200 back To put it simply: Indiana went 3-up in diving yesterday. That’s the minimum standard for today. Going 4-up would be ideal. Scholtz & Germonperez to hold […]
2025 Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
Team – points after Day 3 (projected points after Day 4 – no diving)
Texas – 368 (496.5)
An Uber-competitive 200 back
To put it simply: Indiana went 3-up in diving yesterday. That’s the minimum standard for today. Going 4-up would be ideal.
Scholtz & Germonperez to hold seed in the 200 Breaststroke
Both freestyle relays have seen big drops and additional points, but neither were seeded in the top-8. That isn’t the case in the 400 free relay where they come in sixth, with at best a one- or two-place improvement on the cards. They need to hit that, and importantly to outscore Texas and Cal. They don’t have the sub-41 leadoff that those two will have, so will have to do so by committee.
Non-scorers to move up
Lucas Henveaux is seeded 2nd in the mile, and after his performances so far this week would not be a shock winner, but after scratching Frederick Klein their only other entrant is tyler Kopp. He’s been great so far, making a pair of ‘B’ finals and taking three seconds off his 400 IM best time, and moving up into the points here is not too far-fetched. Cal needs that happen to counter Texas’ 1-2 punch of David Johnston and Rex Maurer.
Match Cal in the 400 free relay
The dream for Indiana would be to go 6-up through these events. Kai Van Westering and Owen McDonald look like good shouts in the 200 backstroke, and Tomer Frankel will hope to return to the top table in the 200 fly again this year. The breaststroke could again be a big event: they have four men seeded to score, and going 3-up/1-down there is probably the minimum they need to stay in contention.
Cal: 312.5 (438.5)
Texas to lay an egg in the 200 breast
Zalan Sarkany was the NCAA champion in the mile last year, but hasn’t quite been in the same form this year. Indiana needs him to be top-8, and ideally on the podium. Moving down is not an option
Points on the boards
It’s been a slightly strange meet for Bjorn Seeliger. He didn’t make the ‘A’ final in the 50 free for the first time in his Cal career and was not selected to anchor the 400 medley relay last night. On the other hand, he had a fantastic swim in the 100 backstroke swim-off, albeit then failing to match that time in finals.
Some big swims in the 200 backstroke
Scholtz added nearly a second to fall from 12th to outside scoring in the 100, and needs to be back for a second swim in the 200 tonight. If one of him and Nate Germonperez can make the ‘A’ final it’ll be a big boost.
Seeliger to step up in the 100 free
There’s a sense that he could go either way in the 100 free, either missing scoring completely or rebounding to make his first ‘A’ final. Cal needs it to be the latter.
Cal took home 21 points between Joshua Thai and Geoffrey Vavitsas last year on Platform, and a similar performance would give Cal a real shot. Texas has had the edge in diving so far this meet, but this is Cal’s best event of the three. Both divers making finals tonight again would be huge.
No Kopp-out in the 1650
Will Scholtz and Nate Germonperez are seeded for 21 points in the 200 breaststroke, but Scholtz missed finals in the 100 yesterday and Germonperez didn’t look great at 200 in the IM. A single ‘B’ final out of those two could be a 15-point swing, even if Cal merely matches their seed in the event.
Indiana: 304 (402)
Diving Domination
After their performance in relays so far, a team of Chris Guiliano, Luke Hobson, Hubert Kos and Will Modglin is definitely quicker than the 2:46.65 they’re entered with. They have the ability to match if not beat Cal on this relay, and coming in seeded for 6 fewer points this could be the first relay where the points swing goes to Texas. If it comes down to this event then Texas should be quietly confident of getting the job done.
A Bundle of ‘A’ finals in the stroke 200s
This is Cal’s best chance of adding big points, and the more difficult it is to make the final, the greater the chance that one of their swimmers misses out. Hubert Kos and WIll Modglin should make the ‘A’ final and if prelims scoring between the Bears and Longhorns turns out to be a wash you can pencil Texas in for the title there and then.
Sarkany back in form
They’re seeded for 28 points, but none of those are for Mewen Tomac and Keaton Jones. Tomac especially would be a shock if he didn’t score, and going 3-up/1-down is a real possibility. If they can put 20 points on Texas in the day’s first event that could be the momentum swing they need
Freestylers to step up again
Adding points from the Psych sheet isn’t something Texas has managed to do this week, but they have two big opportunities on Day 4. Luke Hobson should make the 100 free ‘B’ final after doing so last year and looking in phenomenal form in the 200, and they have three 200 flyers seeded just outside the top-16. A couple of ‘B’ finals would be huge after they’ve had swimmers make only three so far.
