Ohio State’s Chachi Gustafson Stamps His NCAA Championship Ticket With a 1:41.47 200 Fly

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2024 Ohio State Last Chance Qualifier – Men

• Sunday, March 10, 2024
• McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Full Meet Results

Ohio State 5th-year Chachi Gustafson qualified for his 5th-straight NCAA Championship meet on Sunday at the Ohio State Last Chance qualifier.

Gustafson swam 1:41.47 in the 200 fly prelims on Sunday morning before scratching the final. That’s 1.1 seconds better than the 1:42.57 that was invited to last year’s NCAA Championship meet.

Pending any last-minute last-chance swims, that time jumps him to 20th in the NCAA this season. With 28-30 swimmers usually invited in each event, he should be safely on to the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis in March.

Gustafson finished 6th at the 2023 Big Ten Championships in the 200 fly in 1:43.21, but the bar was raised this year, and even with a 1:42.98 in finals, he placed only 8th.

At last year’s NCAA Championship meet, he just-missed scoring with a  1:42.52 in prelims for 19th place. It took 1:42.24 to make it back to the B-Final.

Gustafson’s lifetime best is a 1:41.39 that was done at a Last Chance meet in 2022.

His was the only new likely qualifying time out of the abbreviated, one-day Last Chance event. Men’s initial pre-selection psych sheets are expected out Tuesday morning, with the official invites going out on Wednesday.

SwimSwam: Ohio State’s Chachi Gustafson Stamps His NCAA Championship Ticket With a 1:41.47 200 Fly