North Carolina State University Athletics
Men's Swimming at NCAA Championships, Day One
3/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming
March 23, 2006
Day One, Prelims
This morning was an eye opener. Fifty-six teams sent athletes, from one swimmer to 18 from each team all competing. The preliminaries ran this morning at Georgia Tech's Aquatic Center in Atlanta, with the 200 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 1-meter diving and 400 medley relay events.
Cullen Jones was the only one competing in an event today, and he turned in a 19.27 in the prelims to place second heading into the finals. The top seed coming in after a 19.07, all eyes will be on the finals this evening.
The last event before diving and the 400 medley relay was the 50 free, so we waited poolside for over an hour before Jones swam his event. There were eight sets of heats for the 50 free, with eight swimmers going in each heat. It was pretty intense with each race lasting around 20 seconds. After about three minutes all of those races were over.
The other three swimmers, Kevin Velleca, Dan Velez and Steven Cowling, warmed up and took turns in the pool getting loose, and the first event tomorrow morning is the 200 medley relay, the Wolfpack's top relay event.
We went back to the hotel for lunch and a bit of rest before leaving around 5:30 to head back to the pool for tonight's finals.
