Gator men aim to impress at NCAA Championships

Wednesday, March 22

Indianapolis, IN

6 p.m.

Florida Gators

NCAA Championships

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Florida enters NCAAs favored to finish among the top three teams.

Gator men aim to impress at NCAA Championships

Tuesday, March 21, 2017 | Men's Swimming & Diving

Florida's registered top-10 finishes at NCAAs for the past 16 seasons

By: Layne Weitzel

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS | PSYCH SHEET

INDIANAPOLIS – The Gator men are gunning for a high finish this week at the NCAA Division I Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, co-hosted by Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis and the Indiana Sports Corporation.

Florida has registered top-10 finishes 40 times in program history and every year since 2000, finishing in third last season behind Texas and California. The Gators are looking for their first national championship since their back-to-back titles in 1983 and 1984 under then-head coach Randy Reese. Their highest finish since then is second, which last came in 1985.

The fifth-ranked Gators qualified 13 swimmers and one diver to this week's championships, which run from Wednesday through Saturday. Florida was invited to compete in 14 individual events – the full list is below:

NAME	EVENT
Brennan Balogh	400 IM (seeded 26^th)
	200 back (seeded 18^th)
	200 IM (optional) [seeded 47^th]
Khader Baqlah	200 free (seeded 17^th)
	500 free (optional) [seeded 44^th]
	100 free (optional) [seeded 53^rd]
Andrew Brady	1650 free (seeded 16^th)
	500 free (optional) [seeded 38^th]
	400 IM (optional) [seeded 35^th]
Chandler Bray	100 breast (seeded 26^th)
	200 breast (optional) [seeded 38^th]
Mitch D'Arrigo	500 free (seeded 9^th)
	200 free (seeded 27^th)
	1650 free (seeded 10^th)
Caeleb Dressel	50 free (seeded 1^st)
	100 fly (seeded 2^nd)
	100 free (seeded 1^st)
Ben Lawless	1650 free (seeded 19^th)
	500 free (optional) [seeded 32^nd]
	200 free (optional) [seeded 45^th]
Alex Lebed	200 IM (seeded 22^nd)
	400 IM (seeded 23^rd)
	200 breast (optional) [seeded 46^th]
Blake Manganiello	1650 free (seeded 11^th)
	500 free (optional) [seeded 37^th]
Ross Palazzo	200 breast (seeded 26^th)
	200 IM (optional) [seeded 58^th]
	100 breast (optional) [seeded 47^th]
Maxime Rooney	200 free (seeded 6^th)
	100 free (seeded 19^th)
	500 free (optional) [seeded 39^th]
Samuel Smith	1-meter
	Platform
Jan Switkowski	200 IM (seeded 8^th)
	200 fly (seeded 6^th)
	200 free (optional) [seeded 33^rd]
Mark Szaranek	200 IM (seeded 4^th)
	400 IM (seeded 2^nd)
	200 fly (seeded 6^th)

Florida also qualified in all five relay races and is the top seed for the 200 and 400 free relays. Backstroker Jack Blyzinskyj and sprint freestylist Enzo Martinez-Scarpe will help handle relays.

Looking only at the list of "invited" swimmers from each school, Florida will have the fourth-largest showing at the national championships, preceded by California (17), reigning national champion Texas (15) and Stanford (14).

Florida will open competition tomorrow at 6 p.m. ET with a single event, the 800 free relay. Each day will consist of trials in the morning and consolation finals and finals in the evening.

Results can be viewed live via the NCAA and will be posted in full on FloridaGators.com at the conclusion of each day of competition. Wednesday and Thursday, as well as Friday's and Saturday's prelims, will be streamed via IUPUIJags.com, and the Friday and Saturday finals can be viewed live on ESPN3. For the full list of streaming links, visit FloridaGators.com.

PARTICIPATING GATORS
Qualifying Gators
Brennan Balogh
Khader Baqlah
Andrew Brady
Chandler Bray
Mitch D'Arrigo
Caeleb Dressel
Ben Lawless
Alex Lebed
Blake Manganiello
Ross Palazzo
Maxime Rooney
Samuel Smith
Jan Switkowski
Mark Szaranek

Relay-Only Swimmers
Jack Blyzinskyj
Enzo Martinez-Scarpe

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Wednesday, March 22
800 free relay

Thursday, March 23
1-meter
200 free relay
500 free
200 IM
50 free
400 medley relay

Friday, March 24
3-meter
400 IM
100 fly
200 free
100 breast
100 back
200 medley relay

Saturday, March 25
Platform
1650 free
200 back
100 free
200 breast
200 fly
400 free relay

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