College Swimming Roundup: Indiana University aka Breaststroke U

COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

Indiana, Breaststroke U

Lilly King. Ian Finnerty. Cody Miller. If you follow college swimming, you know Indiana cranks out elite breaststrokers like no other. Likewise if you follow college swimming, you’ve heard of Van Mathias - the former IMer/flyer who transformed into the silver medalist in the 100 breast at 2023 NCAAs. Well, Ray Looze seems to have done it again - because when you already have 3 sub-52/sub-1:52 breaststrokers, why not add to the party? This time, it’s Finn Brooks. Formerly notable for a 45.40 100 fly with a best time in the 100 breast of 56.23, Brooks busted out a couple 24.0 50 splits the past few weekends. The other shoe dropped against Louisville and Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. He started out with a jaw dropping 22.62 50 breast split on Indiana’s 1:22.88 200 medley relay (Brendan Burns 21.49/Brooks 22.62/Tomer Frankel 19.74/Gavin Wight 19.03). That split would have been the fifth best at 2023 NCAAs and is only a tenth off what Mathias split. Incidentally, that relay is a season best for the Hoosiers by almost a second and ranks #4 in the country as of this writing. He followed that up with a big 5-second PR 100 breast to finish in a #3 nationally-ranked 51.34 to vault all the way up Indiana’s depth chart on the year. As a side note, I believe this Indiana team is only the second ever to have 4 men sub-52 on a season, after Cal (Bell-Whitley-Jensen-Soderland) last year. Brooks’s near-PR 45.67 100 fly win just a footnote here for a strong meet.

He might have been the most interesting story, but not nearly the only fast swimmer from this meet:

• A fantastic race in the women’s 1000, as Ching Hwee Gan (Indiana) and Maggie Waggoner (Wisconsin) flipped within tenths of each other the entire race - the most space between the two was on the last 50, as Ching touched in 9:30.07 to Waggoner’s 9:30.88. Those are the #3 and #4 times in the nation.

• Indiana’s underwater expert Brendan Burns is getting faster as champs season nears - his 1:40.78 2fly and 1:40.04 2back are both season bests by significant amounts (1:43.99 and 1:44.37 respectively, though he didn’t swim either at midseason).

• Anna Peplowski, perhaps a bit of a surprise Worlds 4×200 relay qualifier, had a huge swim in the SCY version of the event, hitting a PR, #1 nationally ranked, and school record 1:42.20 with pristine 24.13/25.95/26.04/26.08 splits. She also went a 47.89 100 free and 47.82 400 free relay leadoff, also PRs by over half a second.

• Teammate Tomer Frankel also hit a large sprint free PR, his 42.19 lopping over three tenths off his PR from 2021. His 45.76 100 fly finished just behind Brooks, and he added that blazing 19.74 fly split on top of a 42.24 flying start 100 in the 4 free relay.

• Louisville’s Gabi Albiero likes to try the 200 fly on for size around this time every year. This year she popped a #8 ranked 1:53.80, probably not enough to budge her off the 50/100 free 100 fly champs lineup, but not bad nonetheless!

• Dominik Mark Torok was a highlight for Wisconsin, hitting a 1:42.03 200 fly just behind Burns, and winning the 400 IM in 3:44.35. That’s actually a season best for the reigning Big Ten champ in the event.

More Pac-12 Excitement

Another batch of Pac-12 meets as Cal and Stanford traveled to LA to face USC and UCLA. The big story of these meets is the continued excellence of the USC women. They took down both Cal on Friday and Stanford on Saturday in down to the wire meets that came down to the final couple events. As has been the story all year, the Trojan relays made the difference. Here’s what they racked up:

200 Free Relay, 1:27.64: Vasilissa Buinaia 22.98/Anicka Delgado 21.89/Caroline Famous 21.30/Minna Abraham 21.51

400 Free Relay, 3:11.96: Buinaia 48.62/Delgado 48.31/Hannah Kuechler 48.44/Abraham 46.59

200 Medley Relay, 1:35.40: Famous 24.15/Dobler 26.42/Delgado 22.73/Buinaia 22.10

400 Medley Relay, 3:28.70: Famous 50.78/Dobler 57.50/Delgado 52.02/Buinaia 48.41

These were all wins and all by half a second or less besides the 400 free relay that was .61, so these ladies are clutch. With these relay women and names like Tuggle, Hodges, and Kozan, USC might be ready to make some noise come champs season.

That wasn’t all that came from these meets though:

• Alexy and Seeliger keep wreaking havoc on the sprints. This weekend the American went 19.10/41.94 (41.20 relay), while the Swede was just behind in 19.32/42.33 (18.57 relay), plus a 45.60 100 back.

• The women’s 200 free at USC/Stanford was electric with three women finishing in 1:42 - Aurora Roghair (1:42.44), Minna Abraham (1:42.88), and Kayla Wilson (1:42.91). Roghair in particular is having a monster second semester - she added 4:39.70/9:35.29 wins in the longer frees as well - and if you know college dual meet event lineups, that means the 200 was on the back half of the 1000/200 back-to-back.

• The Cardinal women also put on a 200 fly show - ace IMer Lucy Bell PRd with a 1:52.62 (she’d also PR the 100 in the 51.76), just ahead of Lillie Nordmann (1:53.91) and Charlotte Hook (1:53.98). Hook is an NCAA A finalist in the event while Nordmann has won the consols two years running.

• On the men’s 200 fly side, Andrei Minakov backed up his 1:38 from a couple weeks ago with a 1:40.00 here.

• Finally, it might not be a “highlight,” but a 30 second fly to breast differential on a 400 IM is… something:

Other Fast Stuff

From the world of D1:

• Virginia Tech held a little pre-conference/last chance invite. We got some strong season bests from the Hokie men, including Carles Coll Marti (51.52 100 breast), Youssef Ramadan (44.85/1:42.24PR fly), and Brendan Whitfield (19.49/41.84PR/1:35.09 free).

• Florida also held a similar invite, with Nova Southeastern providing the bona fides for official times. We got a couple school records from the Gator women, with Izzy Ivey hitting a 1:43.03 200 free and freshman Bella Sims a 50.44 100 back. Sims also led off an 800 free relay with a 1:43.04. Mason Laur pretty much locked up an NCAA invite with a 3:41.16 400 IM, and Caleb Maldari PRd his 200 back with a 1:41.50. Backstroke was a big weakness for the Florida men last year, but between freshmen Maldari, Johnny Marshall, and Scotty Buff, they could get a bunch of SEC points in those events this year.

• Rounding out the mini-invites was the Sterkel Classic at Texas. Highlight was a pair of women’s 200 fly PRs - Kelly Pash (1:51.22) was already in the hunt for a title, but Olivia Bray (1:51.81) was a bit of a surprise. Bray discovered the 500 free around this time last year and ended up an NCAA A finalist in the event, will the nominal backstroker find another new event to score big points in this year?

• The Harvard/Yale/Princeton HYP meet didn’t have quite as many fireworks as it’s had in recent years, but some good swims nonetheless. On the men’s side Mitchell Schott continued his outstanding campaign with 42.93/1:33.59 frees and a 1:43.48 200 IM, while Harvard’s David Schmitt broke that school’s record in the 200 fly with a 1:42.14, and teammate Simon Lamar led an incredible 1000 free race, his 9:02.11 holding off hard charging Cole Kuster (9:02.74), Konstantinos Zachariadis (9:02.77), and John Ehling (9:02.95), who all passed up Shane Washart (9:03.35) on the last 100.

• On the women’s side, Princeton sprinters were on point, with Sabrina Johntson (22.31/48.46, 53.47 fly) and Ela Noble (22.35/49.00) leading the way. Teammate Heidi Smithwick PRd a 1:55.51 100 fly for the most dominant win of the weekend, by almost 4 seconds.

From the lower divisions:

• D3 men’s champs Emory put up some strong times battling Georgia. A couple freshmen put up PRs that will have them in strong position to score at NCAAs - McKee Thorsen (1:46.45 200 fly) and Graham Zucker (1:47.07 200 back), and Nick Goudie (20.12 50 free, 19.33 relay split) looks ready to anchor some fast relays.

• Kenyon is a challenger on both sides and wouldn’t be one-upped this weekend, against Case Western Reserve. They already have far-and-away the best D3 women’s breaststroker, Jennah Fadely, but three other women put down PR 100 breast times that are all around scoring range, with Gabby Wei (1:02.50), Sydney Buchman (1:03.49), and Kate Bogan (1:03.82).

• At the aforementioned Florida Invite, a couple NSU men put up nationally-relevant times, with Wingate transfer Marcel Snitko going 19.96/1:36.16 frees and Gustav Henrickson hitting a 4:26.96 500 free. NSU already boasts NCAA 200 free champ Thomas Flower, it’ll be interesting to see what they can assemble for an 800 free relay.

• NAIA Mid South Conference kicked off the champs season. Florida Southern transfer Dorian Bachlaj led the way for champs Cumberlands with 54.48/1:59.73 breasts, while Long Island transfer to Lindsay Wilson Maaike Broersma pulled a clean sweep in her events, winning the 50 free (23.78) and the backstrokes (54.91/1:58.91). Both those backstroke times would have easily won 2023 NAIA championships.

🏊🏽‍♂️ Weekend Preview 🏊🏼

Here come the conference meets! Two of the fastest D2 conferences kick off things with the GLVC and the GLIAC.

In the GLVC, Drury, UIndy, and the McKendree men are all podium contenders in March and will duke it out, while teams like Missouri S&T, Lewis, and UMSL look for NCAA qualifiers and young teams like Quincy and first year program Rockhurst get tastes of elite conference competition.

The GLIAC features favorites Grand Valley State, while Wayne State, Northern Michigan, and St. Cloud are all venerable NCAA-competing programs.

In D3, the ODAC, the SCAC, and the Northwest Conference will be decided.

In the NAIA, the Sun Conference is perhaps the fastest in the division, and the KCAC and AAC have school that will make some noise at nationals as well.

Some more D1 teams in competition as well, with Virginia hosting the pre-conference Cavalier Invite and duals like Texas/SMU and BYU/Utah.

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