Men’s 100 Breaststroke – 2013 World Championship Trials – as reported by swimswam:
Kevin Cordes wanted one thing to be known after winning the 2013 national title in the 100 breaststroke and qualifying for a second (and by extension 3rd and 4th in the 50 breaststroke and 400 medley relay) event: He is both a yards swimmer, and a meters swimmer.
Cordes swam a 59.99 to win the Men’s 100 breaststroke, breaking a minute for the first time in his career. This gives some promise to the future of American breaststroking, as he’s the youngest American to ever break a minute in this race (none have ever done it as a teenager in the past).
In 2nd place was a swimmer having a fantastic swim meet: Nic Fink from the University of Georgia. He’s also only 19, and went a 1:00.24. That’s a full second better than he was coming into this meet. He has become a well-known quantity in the NCAA ranks, but was still on the fringe of the National ranks before taking 3rd in the 200 and 2nd in the 100 here.
That meant that Mike Alexandrov, who has just had a phenomenal season, missed out on the team with a 3rd-place finish in 1:00.39. He looked great all season long, and finished it off with a better time than he was at last year’s Olympic Trials. He was caught by the moving pieces around him, however.
Stanford’s BJ Johnson, who’s already on the team, took 4th in 1:00.68, and was followed by Clark Burckle (1:01.14) and Scott Weltz (1:01.34).
In 7th place was 50 breast champion Kevin Steel in 1:01.80, another lifetime best. Josh Prenot was 1:01.81 for 8th.
Mel, I love your interviews! Why doesn’t NBC get you to do the interviews? No disrespect intended to any of the interviewers on their staff, but you would be so much better, and from the perspective of a swimming fan, would ask much more pertinent questions. Sometimes it’s frustrating to watch when they have somebody, who may be a wonderful interviewer, but who does not have expertise in swimming, asking the questions.