2018 COLUMBIA SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 8th-11th, 2018
- University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- 25 yard (SCY) course
- Live results available on MeetMobile, search “2018 Region VIII Speedo Spring Sectionals”
Michael Andrew dropped a new best time of 18.91 the 50 free on Saturday night of the Columbia Sectional, shaving .26 seconds off his previous best time of 19.17. He swam that 19.17 just over 3 months ago at the 2017 Winter Juniors, and his best time going into the 2017-2018 season was 19.24. That marks a pretty significant .33 second drop in the SCY 50 free this season. Furthermore, that marks Andrew as the 3rd 18-and-under to go a sub-19 50 free. The first swimmer to achieve that honor was none other than Caeleb Dressel, who swam an 18.94 relay lead-off when he was 17, and currently holds the 17-18 NAG at 18.67 from when he was 18. Ryan Hoffer is the other 18 year old to break 19 seconds, with his fastest 18-and-under time sitting at #2 with an 18.71. Andrew’s time doesn’t actually change the all-time 17-18 rankings however, since he was already #3, so now he’s still at #3 but with a faster time.
In other 50 free news, 45 year old Olympic Gold medalist Josh Davis broke the US Matster’s national record with his 20.99. That time marks the first time a swimmer aged 45 or above has broken 21 seconds in the 50 free. The previous record was 21.06 from Richard Hughey in 2010.
Andrew went on to win the men’s 100 back in a new lifetime best of 46.50. That marked another significant drop for Andrew, coming in .69 seconds under his previous best of 47.19. Andrew was out in 22.60 and back in 23.90. 14 year old Aiden Hayes came in 3rd with a 49.27, which was just off his lifetime best of 49.23, which is 7th all-time for 13-14 year olds. Michael Andrew then came back and finished out the night with a stunning 20.60 to win the 50 fly.
Kevin “Patrick” Callan, a Michigan recruit for the 2018-2019 season, blasted a 4:13.78 in the 500 free to win by 14 seconds. Patrick Callan took nearly a full second off his previous best time of 4:14.66, bringing himself up from 9th to 5th in the all-time 17-18 rankings. He was out really fast, clocking his first 200 at 1:37.14, which for reference, is 3-tenths faster than Clark Smith took out his first 200 when he broke the American record in the 500 at the NCAAs last year with his 4:08.42.
Good for Michael! Best times are always fun (and get few and far between). Hope he’s enjoying it.
Exciting thing is his upside— not talking about his controversial training methods. I find he has quite a few technical issues to resolve, when we compare his stroke mechanics to other top sprinters in the world. He can get there!
race video linked via @Swimfluence: https://twitter.com/Swimfluence/status/972630746144935936
Race video? I have a very low quality one if anyone’s interested. Well so do a lot of people I’m assuming, including Josh Davis, as he filmed it right behind me.
If you have the link please post it in the comment 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/JoshDavis.USASwimmer/posts/1802482909771317?aymt_tip=1&placement=aymt_hot_post_tip
He took two extra strokes on the finish.
Josh Davis also qualified for Winter Junior Mats, except He’s too old.
Usa Swimming just changed the cut to 20.89 🙁
Hot damn. In your face MA haters.
His ultimate goal is still Tokyo 2020 in the big pool.
I hate the word “haters”.
By the way when you swim 21.75 in LCM that’s not a big surprise to go 18.91.
and yet, if we are being candid, you are the quintessential ‘small’ pool (bathtub) hater….
the man is allowed to have an opinion
Too bad he will not be swimming in college
MA is crazy. Does he seriously do most of his training at home in that little 2-lane homemade pool alone?
Obviously it works for him.
Completely boggles my mind, and his accomplishments are celebrated like he is the anti-Dean Farris.
– swims less yardage then your typical age grouper
– no significant weight training
– 2 lane pool
– no training partners
– bad technique according to Swimswam commenters.
If you told me that this person just did an 18.9 I would never have believed you. I think it just means that there are different methods to achieve the same goals. My daughter’s club prioritizes aerobic and long-term development (train the young kids to be IMers and distance free) and have seen tremendous results. On the other hand maybe USRPT can actually work as well.
Looks like michael andrew is incorporating new things to his training. Went to high altitude training in Mexico and is doing some weight training.
I think it’s mostly body-weight stuff incorporated to his practice (push-ups, pull-ups, ect)
josh davis is a USRPT advocate as well
So that makes 2.
Michael Andrew does more different strokes training instead of lots of freestyle training and more at a race pace, I think this helps than do all the high freestyle yardage.
His practices are almost entirely race pace, the belief with USRPT is that if it’s not at race pace, then it isn’t helpful.
it’s bad technique according to the world of swimming not just the comments here. The fact that he’s already insanely fast swimming the way he does is incredible, if he can fix a few things with his technique on all his strokes it could push him to those major meets he’s trying to make.