WUGS + Junior Nats + Cowbell Cate

Open Water World Cup in Paris Cancelled. 200 Breast set from Ray Looze. Milo Cavic and John Atkinson are on the pod this week.

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SWIM NERD
August 07, 2023

Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd Newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming. This week...

  • 🌎 Fast Swims Around the World

  • 📰 Swimming Headlines

  • 📜 Set of the Week

  • 🤡 Swimming Meme of the Week

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🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

World University Games

WUGs is one of my favorite meets to follow. It’s a great place to catch late-blooming breakouts before they show up at the biggest stages. This year, with the meet in China, we got to see some of the hosts’ biggest stars in an encore from standout World Champs performances:

  • Zhang Yufei, fresh off a two-gold Worlds performance, broke some WUGs records with 25.29/56.57 flys and 24.29/53.34 100 free.

  • Li Bingjie, who most notably broke into the top-30 performances in the 800 free formerly held stranglehold by Katie Ledecky, took the distance double in 8:30.74/16.18.48, while popping a number of 53.mid relay splits.

  • Newly minted 200 breast world record holder Qin Haiyang swept his specialty all in WUGs records, topping out with 26.38/58.42/2:08.09 times.

More notable swims from the meet:

  • Poland’s Adela Piskorska broke a Games record with a 27.84 50 back winning, coming .12 from the national record. She also won the 100 back in 1:00.20.

  • Also in Polish news, 100 breaststroke silver medalist Jan Kalusowski became the first from the nation under 1:00 with a 59.86.

  • Though Poland (there they are again!) swam to the win in the men’s 4×100 free relay, China’s Chen Juner was the man with the fastest split in the race, anchoring in a 47.74. He was the fastest man through semis in the 100 and 200 fly but fell off a bit on the back half of both of those races in finals.

  • Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova and South Africa’s Kaylene Corbett had a fantastic race in the 2 breast. The two were stroke for stroke throughout the race, with Tetervkova bringing it home a bit faster for the win, 2:22.86-2:22.99. Tetervkova also swept the two shorter breaststroke events.

  • South Africa’s Erin Gallagher may have finished silver in the 100 fly, but she set a new national record in the event with a 57.64.

Speedo Junior National Championships

The best under-18s in America came together in Irvine for Junior Nats this week. While we didn’t see the youngsters that made the Worlds team (besides prelim relay swimmer Henry McFadden and 4×200 free anchor Alex Shackell), we did see some impressive swims all around.

On the girls’ side, the best performance was Tess Howley’s 2:06.85 200 fly. That was a PR and meet record and would have placed fourth at Worlds. She also popped a PR and win with a 58.99 100 fly. Of note in the longer fly race, 13-year-old Audrey Derivaux held her own against the high schoolers (all the other A finalists were at least 4 years older than her) with a 2:11.69. She’d also make the A final in the 100 fly, 200 IM, and 200 back and win the B final of the 400 IM.

Other notable girls’ swims:

  • 15-year old Kayla Han took 2 distance wins, in the 400 IM (4:42.32) and 1500 (16:16.94, a 10 second PR).

  • Another 13-year-old, Ellie Clarke, nipped Derivaux to win the 200 back in 2:13.52, an over two second drop for her.

  • 15 year old Maddie Mintenko looks like another long-sprint budding star for an American team full of them - she broke the meet record in the 200 free with a 1:58.07.

  • Bailey Hartman showed up all over the podium all week - 200 fly (4th), 200 free (1st), 400 free (2nd), 100 fly (2nd), 200 free (2nd).

  • Same can be said of likewise versatile Caroline Bricker - she saw champ finals in the 200 fly (8th), 100 breast (5th), 400 IM (8th), 100 fly (4th), and 200 IM (1st).

On the boys’ side, the swim that stood out most was Aaron Shackell’s 3:47.00 400 free. He won that race by over 4 seconds, also taking the 200 free over aforementioned Worlds medalist McFadden, 1:47.46-1:47.56 thanks to a 26.85 final 50. However, Maximus Williamson actually had the fastest 200 on the weekend with a 15-16 age group national record leading off his team’s 4×200 free relay in 1:47.29. Shackell also won the 200 fly with a 1:56.07, just a touch off his best, and split 52.94 fly in the 4×100 medley relay.

Of note:

  • 14-year-old distance prodigy Luka (“The Bazooka”) Mijatovic continued his age group record setting ways with ascending distance 1:50.40/3:52.01/7:59.64/15:27.38 PRs. The mile broke the oldest age group record in the books, set in 1976 by Jesse Vassallo, who would go on to set world records in the 200 and 400 IM and also win 200 back and 200 IM Olympic golds.

  • A couple fantastic relay anchors, as 50 free champ Jonathan Gim (22.75) anchored Rose Bowl’s second place 4×50 free relay in 21.92, while perhaps even more impressive as he’s 2 years younger, 16 year old Josh Howat anchored NCAP’s 4×50 medley relay in 22.27. Howat is a big one to watch in the future, he has super long levers and is obviously still learning how to use them, and how to work around them in the turns and underwaters. He was 22.87/50.50 in the individual sprints.

  • 15-year-old Rowan Cox blasted a 53.10 100 fly for the win in that race, #8 15-16 with a year to go in the age group, while Shareef Elaydi who we’ve mentioned a couple times this summer, blasted a 54.73 in the event - that’s #4 all-time in the US for 13-14s, behind only Tom Heilman, Cox, and Michael Andrew. He also has almost a year to go in the age group.

  • 3 boys dipped under 4:20 in the 400 IM - 16 year old Sean Green took the win (4:18.62, a 4-second PR) over Cal commit Bert Najera (4:19.35) and Northwestern commit Diego Nosack (4:19.84). That was Green and Nosack’s first time under 4:20.

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

Open Water World Cup in Paris Cancelled

Less than a year out, Paris needs to clean up its poopy water or find a cleaner venue.

What happens when you swim in polluted water? Just ask the triathletes competing in Sunderland, England where nearly 60 of them came down with the squirts.

Susie O’Neill breaks Masters World Record

Madame Butterfly, on her 50th Birthday, took down the Masters World Record in the 50 Butterfly LCM, posting a 29.08.

Rachel Stratton-Mills becomes Northwestern’s next Head Coach

Katie Robinson left Northwestern for Stanford and now Rachel Stratton-Mills is leaving Arizona State to head home to Chicago. Throw in the Pac-12 & Big 12 restructuring, and college swimming had a massive week of change.

inside with brett hawke banner logo transparent

CLIPS OF THE WEEK

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

A sit down lunch with Olympic silver medalist, World Champion, and former World Record holder, Milo Cavic!

Milo reflects on his days under Coach Dave Salo at Irvine Nova and Coach Mike Bottom at the University of California. They talk about changing nationalities, Claire Cruzan leaving Stanford, why people haven't been failing drug tests lately, and partying to release the tensions of being a professional swimmer.

Among other things. Enjoy!

On Wednesday…the American Swimming Coaches Association presents Canada’s High Performance Director, John Atkinson!

📝 SWIM SET OF THE WEEK

200 Breaststroke Pace Set from Coach Ray Looze

4 Rounds

4×50 @ 200 Pace - hold stroke count - negative split each 50

1 @ 1:00, 1 @ :55, 1 @ :50, 1 @ :45

1×50 easy

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK

So many funny swimming memes to choose from this week thanks to Cowbell Cate’s remarks (insert Will Ferrell meme) and the Channel 9 news crew calling us proud Americans, “sore, pathetic losers”.

A moderately funny Australian DM’ed us this one of France’s new coach, Robèrt Beauman:

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