The Louisville swimming & diving teams began their competitive season on Saturday morning with an abbreviated intrasquad meet, and defending NCAA Champion, NCAA Record-holder, and fastest 100 yard butterflier in the history of the sport Kelsi Worrell has already suffered her first lost of the season.
In the very first race of the day, Louisville freshman Mallory Comerford beat Worrell in the 100 fly by a margin of 54.38-54.99. Comerford is no slouch herself and is a member of the USA Swimming Junior National Team, but that early win is still a huge confidence boost for the youngster.
Lest anybody panic too early, the season is very early, and among other things, Louisville has spent the last few days pushing trucks and otherwise beating their bodies into submission. The meet was more like a 5-dive lactate set than it was a true meet, though this 100 fly did come first in the day.
Worrell would still dominate the day overall. She came back and won the 100 back (54.42), 100 free (50.71), and placed 5th in the 100 IM (59.66). Worrell showed some skill in the backstrokes over the summer in long course, and with two added underwaters in short course, it’s no surprise that she crushed her lifetime best by two seconds on Saturday.
Worrell also swam the 100 breaststroke – in 1:20.63 – which as much satisfies a curiosity as anything.
Other winners on the day:
- Senior Pedro Coutinho won the men’s 100 fly in 48.61, beating out the debut of Missouri transfer Max Grodecki (49.20).
- Junior Grigory Tarasevich won the 100 back in 49.61 – topping a deep Louisville backstroke group.
- Andee Cottrell swam 1:05.51 in the women’s 100 breaststroke.
- Thomas Dahlia, a Louisville post-grad, won the men’s 100 breast in 57.71. The top collegiate finisher was David Boland in 58.69.
- Trevor Carroll won the men’s 100 free in 45.30.
- Post-grad Tanja Kylliainen won the women’s 100 IM in 56.71, taking better than a two-second margin from aforementioned freshman Mallory Comerford.
- Nolan Tesone won the men’s 100 IM in 51.62.
Full meet results on Meet Mobile, search “UofL Time Trials.”
Someone please post all her workout sets and split times since the start of school year so swim swammers can get to the bottom of this mystery and for good measure all her dry land and meals would be needed to do a thorough job
I’m sure a flyer of Kelsi’s caliber really enjoys having everyone discuss her breaststroke “prowess”.
Meet Mobile has Worrell splitting 38.71/41.92 in the 100 breast, so might be a timing error somehow, but not a typo.
Is the 1:20.63 for Worrell in the 100 breast a typo? Maybe 1:10 or 1:12??
Wondering this too, I’m confused as to how a :49 100 flier can’t transfer her short axis strength into at least a sub 1:10 breaststroke or so. Unless she has no ability at all to do frog kick? But then her :59 100 IM says otherwise.
Would really like clarification on this, haha I just find it super interesting is all in terms of top-tier swimmers off-strokes.
No, she swam a 1:20.63.
As pointed out above – this meet was run on quick turnarounds, so under better circumstances, she’s probably capable of a better swim.
Grodecki with a strong performance in 100 fly. Must be a very versatile swimmer after already being a sprint free and back guy
This seems extremely excessive. I’ve personally witnessed many top swimmers repeatedly beaten in practice by other swimmers who can’t touch them in meets. An intersquad meet is just a glorified practice in the end. Write an article about this when someone beats Worrell in an actual taper meet.