Texas A&M sophomore Breeja Larson has broken the NCAA Record in the 100 breaststroke at prelims of the Big 12 Championships being held in Columbia, Missouri.
Larson marked a 57.92 in prelims of the 100 to take the top seed ahead of Texas’ Laura Sogar. She went out in a 27.3 and came back in a 30.5, which is near-perfect splitting.
The swim for Larson broke the old NCAA mark held by Arizona post-grad Annie Chandler from 2010, when she swam a 58.06 at the 2010 NCAA Championship meet.
“It was an awesome swim without a doubt,” Aggie head swimming coach Steve Bultman said of the swim. He continued on to answer the question that was likely on the minds of most of our readers after seeing the swim.
“She was in a racing suit, but she’s nowhere close to being rested or shaved. She’s a racer. She believes in herself and she believes that she can accomplish anything. She surprised some people today. It surprised me that she did it right now.”
Larson’s previous best time was her Big 12 Record from last year’s NCAA’s at 58.51. This incidentally broke Sogar’s Meet Record of 58.83 from last year’s Big 12 Championship.
It was in that record setting race where we first got a taste of Larson’s potential as she hung with the more heralded Sogar until the final turn of the race.
Now, Breeja Larson moves from “really good” to legend status. Let us not forget that she only started taking seriously about two years ago, when she first joined a USA Swimming club team.
This was the 2nd fastest swim by a woman in history, coming short of Tara Kirk’s 57.77 afterher days at Stanford. These are the only two swims ever done by a woman to break the 58-second barrier.