Olivia Bray Rocks 51.04 Back After 50.67 100 Fly School Record at Texas Invite

2020 TEXAS HALL OF FAME SWIMMING INVITE

• December 2-5, 2020
• Lee and Joe Jamal Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
• Short course yards (SCY)
• Results Link

The Texas women are hot after smashing the school record in the 400 medley en-route to a nation-leading time last night.

This morning, star freshman Olivia Bray doubled up with the 100 fly and 100 back, and hit the morning’s best times in both. In the 100 fly, she clocked a 50.67, just a few tenths off of her lifetime best. That swim puts her at #2 in the nation behind only Virginia sophomore Kate Douglass‘s 49.73 from November. Bray is also the only other woman under 51 seconds in the 100 fly this season.

The 100 fly performance this morning is also a new school record, which felt like a foregone conclusion after her split last night and her speed coming into the program. She topples Olympian Kathleen Hersey’s 51.40 from way back in 2008.

In the 100 back, Bray returned for arguably a bigger swim. While Bray’s 100 fly was very quick, it wasn’t a PR; in the 100 back, she raced to a 51.04 lifetime best, dropping almost a full second. Bray had never broken 52 seconds until this morning, and her previous 100 back best was a 52.02, a time she hadn’t bettered since 2017.

This morning’s session was dominated by Texas freshmen on the men’s and women’s sides. Emma Sticklen was just off of her best in the 100 fly, going 52.07 behind Bray, while Anna Elendt broke a minute for the first time to lead the 100 breast prelims (59.31). Elendt was 57.83 on the school record-breaking 400 medley relay last night, so we can reasonably expect another big drop tonight.

Carson Foster led the way in the 400 IM with a 3:43.21, setting up another showdown with older brother Jake Foster, who was second in 3:44.63. Carson went 3:35.27 in October to set the 17-18 NAG record, destroying Andrew Seliskar’s former mark of 3:37.52, though he’s 19 now. Jake has been as fast as 3:40.71, from the Minnesota Invite last December, and they’ll challenge each other tonight. In that event this morning, David Johnston (3:47.80) also swam a lifetime best.

Zac Van Zandt was another freshman popping a lifetime best, as he was 46.44 in the 100 fly to take a few tenths off of his old PR. Senior Alvin Jiang was only 50.28 and out of the A-final tonight in a perplexing swim after his 44-second fly leg on the medley last night. He was nearly at full speed in the 100 back, though, clocking a 45.12 for the best time this morning by over a second-and-a-half.

OTHER NOTABLE SWIMS

• Indiana transfer Andrew Couchon looks poised to win the 100 breast tonight. After a big 51.6 split on the medley last night, he swam a 52.48 this morning to lead prelims, a lifetime best.
• The 200 free should be a major race tonight on the men’s side. Drew Kibler was 1:33.32 this morning, followed closely by Jake Sannem (1:33.41). Coby Carrozza was third (1:34.73), then Daniel Krueger (1:35.61), post-grad Jeff Newkirk (1:35.70) and Alex Zettle (1:35.93). Kibler was 1:30.57 leading off the 800 free relay on Wednesday, though, and both Sannem and Carrozza split 1:32-lows on Texas’s ‘A’ relay.