Gretchen Walsh Posts 57.43 100 Meter Fly at Dynamo LC Meet in Georgia

Dynamo Long Course Elite Meet

• Friday, March 5th – Sunday, March 7th, 2021
• Jason Turcotte LC Competition Pool, Chamblee, GA
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Results on Meet Mobile: “Dynamo Long Course Elite Meet”

On Friday at Dynamo’s Elite Meet in Georgia, U.S. National Team member Gretchen Walsh of Nashville Aquatic Club swam a lifetime best 100 fly of 57.43.

This 1st place finish in the finals heat destroyed her previous best, 58.84, from 2019 Summer Nationals. This was a tremendous swim for the 18-year-old Olympic hopeful who is now tied with fellow U.S. National Teamer Kate Douglass for #7 in the world this season:

18-year-old Walsh is among the top 5 American women in this event this season, all of whom are in their teens and have broken 58.00. She has committed to Virginia for the fall of 2021, following in the footsteps of older sister Alex Walsh. Back in May 2019, we listed Walsh as #1 on SwimSwam’s List of Way Too Early NCAA Recruit Ranks for the girl’s high school class of 2021, mainly for her sprint free, 100 back, and 200 free times.

After tonight, her 57.43 ties her with Kate Douglass as the 3rd all-time fastest 100 butterflyer in the 17-18 age group. To claim victory in Georgia on Friday, Walsh beat out fellow National Teamer Erika Brown from Tennessee Aquatics who touched the wall 2nd with a time of 59.43. Brown came within .70 of her best 100 meter fly time from the January 2020 Pro Swim Series.

Race Video:

Walsh’s 100 Fly can be seen at the timestamp 1:47.50 during the finals live stream:

Other Standout Swims

• Distance free and IM specialist Summer Smith of Bluefish Swim Club placed 1st in the 400 IM with a time of 4:45.46, right on her lifetime best from Sectionals in March 2019.
• Bluefish 16-year-old Josh Parent won the 400 IM with a time of 4:25.84, staying within 2 seconds of the lifetime best he posted in January at the Richmond Pro Swim Series which ranks him #22 out of the all-time fastest 15-16 year-olds in the event.
• Dynamo’s Alicia Henry, a class of 2025 Cal commit, touched the wall 1st in the 100 breast with a time of 1:10.41, just one-hundredth of a second off her fastest-ever 100 breast time from March 2020.
• UGA commit Arie Voloschin of Dynamo won the men’s 100 breast with a time of 1:02.84 which undercuts his lifetime best 100 breast from January by more than half a second.
• Andres Dupont Cabrera of Bolles School Sharks lowered his lifetime best 200 free (which he posted less than one month ago) by more than 1 second, touching the wall in 1st place with a time of 1:52.99. This long course success paralleled his freestyle rival Michael Cotter who retook the title of fastest 200 yard free time within the class of 2022 from Cabrera at a short course meet in North Carolina the same day.
• Bolles’ Martin Espernberger took 1st place in the men’s 100 fly with a time of 54.44, beating his previous best from March 2020 by nearly .60. Espernbegrer, a member of the Austrian Youth National Team, holds the Austrian Youth National Record in this event and has committed to Tennessee for fall 2022.
• Brown took 1st place in the 200 free (2:01.03), beating LSU’s sprint and mid-distance freestyler Katarina Milutinovich by .7, and staying within 4 seconds of her lifetime best from the 2019 U.S. Open.  Milutinovich virtually tied her lifetime best from 2016, missing it by .04.