Trojans set off for NCAA Championships


By
 in , ,

Coming off the program’s first Pac-12 conference title since 1979, the USC men’s swimming and diving team will look to make a splash to end the season at the NCAA Championships, which kick off on Thursday in Iowa City, Iowa. The event will run through March 28 when a national champion will be crowned.

USC has previously won nine NCAA team titles and 117 NCAA titles, which are both good enough for fourth most nationally. It’s been a while since the program won a national team title, however, with the last one coming all the way back in 1977. It will also be looking for its first top-three finish since taking second in 1990.

Led by senior Cristian Quintero, the Trojans (6-2, 6-1 Pac-12) seek to put an end to that hiatus and will attempt to do so with the 13 swimmers and four divers they are are sending to the championships.

Quintero, who won three individual races at the Pac-12 Championships, is the defending NCAA champion in the 500-yard free and also played an integral part in the Trojan’s 800-yard free relay title last year. The Venezuela native is the top seed in the 200-yard free after finishing second in 2014 and currently sit as the second and fourth seed  in the 500-yard free and 100-yard free, respectively.

Quintero will be crucial to the Trojans’ success in relays at the NCAA Championships after  anchoring the team’s Pac-12 titles in the 400-yard free and medley relays, in addition to the 800-yard free relay.

USC is seeded second in the 400-yard medley and 800-yard free relays and third in the 400-yard free relay. They are seeded just outside of the top-five in the 200-yard medley and free relays.

Head coach Dave Salo, now in his ninth year at the helm of the men’s and women’s programs, returned seven All-Americans in 2015 including Quintero, along with senior backstroker Luca Spinazzola, senior breaststroker Sergio Lujan Rivera, junior butterflyer and sprinter Maclin Davis.

Salo also has the fortune of having an All-American bundle of sophomores in freestylers Dylan Carter, Reed Malone and Santo Condorelli.

Sophomore Steven Stumph also won his first title in the 200-yard breast at the Pac-12 Championships and is seeded third in the race in his first NCAAs.

Another young talent is freshman Ralf Tribuntsov, who is the top seed in the 100-yard backstroke and will look for USC’s first win in the race since John Naber won the event four straight times from 1974 to 1977.

The Trojans are also making some noise from the diving boards. For the first time in school history, they are bringing four divers to the championships.

Senior divers Jordan Gear, juniors Collin Pollard and Deon Reid and freshman Dashiell Enos will all be taking part in their first NCAAs.

Prelims for the Championship will begin at 9 a.m. each day with the finals capping off the day at       5 p.m.