Swimming, Diving Set For Men's NCAA Championships
March 23, 2011 | Men's Swimming & Diving
March 23, 2011
Click here for Minnesota's NCAA Championships host page.
Click here for live NCAA results.
Click here for the complete meet schedule.
Click here for ESPN3's streaming coverage of finals on Friday and Saturday.
ESPN will also air a 90-minute show at 1:30 p.m. (ET) on April 6.
USC postseason bios/notes in PDF Format 
The No. 8 USC men's swimming and diving team (6-3), led by All-Americans Clement Lefert and Patrick White and a strong corps of up-and-comers spearheaded by record-breaking freshman sprinter Vladimir Morozov, will compete at the 2011 NCAA Swimming Championships, Thursday through Saturday (March 24-26) in Minneapolis, Minn. Prelims begin each day at noon and finals are at 7 p.m. (CT).
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS NOTES
USC, owner of nine NCAA team titles (1960, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977), has won a combined 112 NCAA titles, including 94 individually and 18 on relays ... USC has won at least one NCAA title in six of the past 10 seasons ... USC features one returning individual All-American from last year in Clement Lefert (500y free) while he and sophomore Nick Karpov return from USC's 800y free relay All-American squad. Harrison Jones was also an All-American as a freshman on 1-meter and platform. Other returning individual scorers from 2010 include Richard Charlesworth (500y and 1650y free), Jones (1-meter and platform), Patrick White (200y free), Dillon Connolly and Emmett Walling (100y breast) ... Freshman Vladimir Morozov is a strong bet to become USC's first All-American in the 50y and Bjorn Zikarsky in 1991 and its first All-American in the 100y free since Bela Szabados in 1999.
USC AT THE 2011 PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS
USC won three Pac-10 titles at the 2011 Pac-10s as freshman Dimitri Colupaev claimed the 200y free (1:34.05), senior Clement Lefert won the 500y free (4:15.59) and junior Harrison Jones won the 1-meter springboard (435.00). Lefert was also third in the 200y free (1:34.39) and 200y fly (1:44.91). Freshman Vladimir Morozov went toe-to-toe with Cal sprint defending champion (and Olympic gold medalist) Nathan Adrian and finished second behind Adrian in the 50y (19.06) and the 100y free (41.93). His 50 time was a record, as was his prelim 100y time (41.92). Senior Richard Charlesworth was a two-time finalist, taking second in the 1650y free (14:58.33) and eighth in the 500y free (4:23.63). Other Trojan finalists included Steven Starks (1M, 3M, platform), Justin DiFederico (400y IM, 200y IM) and Alex Lendrum and Nick Karpov in the 200y back.
RECORDS
Numerous Trojan short course yards records have fallen this season. Freshman Vladimir Morozov has done repeated damage to USC's sprint records. He has lowered the 50y free record five times (now at 19.06) and the 100y free record six times (now at 41.92). He also helped take down USC's 200y free (1:17.90) and 400y free relays (2:51.58). Especially noteworthy was that until this fall, the 100y free and 400y free relay records had stood since 1990. Morozov also set USC pool record with a 19.71 in the 50y free and a 42.93 in the 100y free ... At the 2010 Short Course World Championships, sophomore Clement Lefert set USC records in the 100m fly (52.54) and the 200m free (1:44.82). Lefert also lowered the 200y free record in the opening leg of the 800y free relay at Pac-10s in 1:33.37.
USC AT A GLANCE, 2010
The men's squad is coming off an 11th-place mark at the NCAAs, its third straight year of improvement at the national meet. It returns sophomore Clement Lefert, an individual finalist in the 500y free (third), as well as fellow All-Americans junior Patrick White and sophomore Nick Karpov, who joined the graduated Zoltan Povazsay as top-8 finishers in the 800y free (sixth).
USC finished fifth at the Pac-10 Championships. Lefert, who won the 200y free, and White were each three-time finalists while Connolly was a double finalist.
TROJAN NEWCOMERS
Salo's staff welcomes one of the top incoming classes in the country, including freshmen Dimitri Colupaev, Chase Bloch, Nick Johnson, Vladimir Morozov, Sean Mulroy, Matthan Stroethoff, Matt Voell and John Wagner. Morozov, the fastest prep swimmer in the nation in 2010 who moved to the U.S. from Siberia three years ago, was named Swimming World's Male High School Swimmer of the Year in 2010. A former member of the Russian National team, He set national high school records in the 50y and 100y free at the 2010 CIF Southern Section Division III Championships and Masters. Colupaev, a German national team member, competed at the 2009 European Short Course Nationals, where he was a 100m and 200m free finalist. Bloch, a versatile swimmer, was one of the top American signings last year and a member of the 2010 U.S. Junior team, as was Wagner. Mulroy was a multiple Illinois state finalist while Johnson was a member of the 2010 World Youth Team.
SO FAR
The USC men's first action of the season came at the USC Invitational, where Troy swept Cal State Bakersfield in the traditional dual meet (111-85) and the sprint session (104-40). Freshman Vladimir Morozov won both the 50y and 100y free while sophomore Clement Lefert won the 200y free and 200y fly ... At the Trojan Diving Invitational, junior diver Harrison Jones swept all three boards ... In its first true dual meet action, the men's team lost to Arizona (110-190) before beating Arizona State (186-107). Senior Richard Charlesworth won a pair of races against the Wildcats, but the big news of the weekend came from Morozov, who broke a 20-year old USC record in USC's win over ASU. Morozov's record-breaking swim came in his leadoff of the 400y free relay, the final race of the meet. He clocked a 42.93, not only breaking a six-year old pool record of 43.59, but erasing Erik Ran's 1990 school record of 42.98. The opening swim led USC to a relay win of 2:57.42 ... USC had a huge meet at the 2010 U.S. Short Course Nationals, winning a combined 22 medals -- including 13 golds, six silvers and three bronze - and breaking records in a combined 13 events. Charlesworth won silvers in the 500y and 1650y free while Morozov won bronze in the 100y free and Lefert won bonze in the 200y free. Troy men also won the 200y, 400y and 800y free relays and won bronze in the 200y medley relay ... Troy finished the fall schedule with a win over UNLV, 155-98, which included two wins from sophomore Will Orlady. Morozov also won twice and set the pool record in the 50y free 19.71 ... The USC men swept UC Santa Barbara in a dual-meet doubleheader and then finished third at the SMU Swim Classic, where Morozov won the 50y and 100y free and the 100y back ... USC dropped its final two meets of the season, falling at California, 160-133, and Stanford, 162-116. Charlesworth won the 500y and 1000y free at Cal (Pac-10 recap above).
HOZZSU, MOROZOV EARN NATIONAL SWIMMER OF WEEK HONORS
Katinka Hosszu and Vladimir Morozov earned Counsilman-Hunsaker National Collegiate Division I Swimmer-of-the-Week Honors after huge performances at the 2010 U.S. Short Course Nationals. Hosszu won three U.S. Short Course titles, claiming the 200 IM (1:53.47, NCAA "A" cut), 400 IM (4:00.03, NCAA "A" cut) and the 200 fly (1:51.45, NCAA "A" cut). All of her performances were school records, and the 400 IM time set a meet record. She was also part of USC's 800 free relay title and a school record in the 400 free relay, which finished second. Morozov broke USC's 50 and 100 free records three times at the U.S. Short Course Nationals, including on the lead off of the first-place 200 free relay (1:17.90, 19.44 lead-off split) and 400 free relay (2:51.58, 42.06 split). He finished third individually in the 100 free (42.12), and fourth in the 50 free (19.32).
SALO NAMED 2010 COACH OF THE YEAR
In its review of the 2010 international swim season, SwimNews.com named USC head coach Dave Salo as the world's Coach of the Year (women). In addition to his efforts with the Trojans, Salo's success includes his work with Trojan Swim Club, which features many of the top swimmers in the world, many of whom had big success in 2010, including Rebecca Soni and Jessica Hardy.
SALO INDUCTED INTO ASCA HALL OF FAME
Dave Salo joined join Jack Baurele, Bob Bowman, Jerry Holtrey and David Marsh as 2010 inductees into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the ASCA's Annual Awards Banquet in Indianapolis Sept. 4. Salo has mentored numerous Olympic and World Championships medalists, All-Americans and NCAA champions during a career that has spanned more than 25 years. Among the Olympic medalists that Salo has coached are Rebecca Soni, Ous Mellouli, Larsen Jensen, Aaron Peirsol, Jason Lezak, Lenny Krayzelburg, Stacianna Stitts, Colleen Lanne, Amanda Beard and Gabe Woodward.
SALO NAMED PART OF U.S. STAFF AT SHORT COURSE WORLDS
Dave Salo served on the USA Swimming coaching staff as an assistant women's coach at the World Short Course Championships in Dubai, Dec. 15-19. The coaching assignment was the latest appointment for Salo in a long line of stints on U.S. national teams, including a head coach position at the 2005 World Championships.
Kevin Clements, NEW ASSISTANT COACH
Salo added a new assistant coach to the Trojan staff this spring, Kevin Clements, a 14-time NCAA All-American at Auburn and former American record holder who comes to USC after two years as an assistant at LSU and three years at Maryland. At USC, Clements will work with all groups but more extensively with the Trojans' freestylers and IM'ers. He will aid in the recruiting efforts for the women's team and brings with him a great deal of swimming knowledge ranging from his international experience to winning an NCAA team championship.
SONI NAMED U.S. FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR
Former USC NCAA champion and current Trojan volunteer assistant coach Rebecca Soni was named U.S. Female Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, highlighting three awards she received at the seventh annual USA Swimming Foundation Golden Goggle Awards in New York on Monday (Nov. 22). In addition to winning Female Athlete of the Year, Soni took home the Female Race of the Year honor for her title-winning 200y breaststroke swim at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine. Soni also was part of the Relay Performance of the Year honoring the U.S. 4x100m medley relay win, also at the Pan Pacs.
(Less than a month after earning the 2010 U.S. Female Swimmer of the Year honor - and still within the 2010 calendar year - Soni swept the 50y, 100y and 200y breaststroke events at the Short Course World Championships. She also won a silver on the 400y medley relay, adding assurances to all of her voters that her Swimmer of the Year honor was sorely deserved.)
Players Mentioned
