Blueseventy Swim of the Week: Ella Eastin Breaks Hoff’s 200y IM NAG

Disclaimer: BlueSeventy Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The BlueSeventy Swim is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.

With a trio of National Age Group records this week’s Pac-12 Championships (one of which formed half of our double-feature Blueseventy Swim of the Week last week), there is no doubt that Stanford freshman Ella Eastin deserves another week of recognition for her outstanding Pac-12 performances.

The question becomes, which of the remaining swims was more impressive: her 1:52.77 200 IM or her 1:51.96 in the 200 fly?

Let’s look at the stats.

In the 200 yard IM, Eastin took on Cal freshman Kathleen Baker in a race for the ages. The duo clocked 1:52.77 and 1:52.80, respectively, to become the 7th and 8th fastest swimmers in the event in history.

• Caitlin Leverenz, 1:51.77 – 2012
• Katinka Hosszu, 1:51.80 – 2012
• Missy Franklin, 1:52.11 – 2015
• Julia Smit, 1:52.31 – 2010
• Maya DiRado, 1:52.50 – 2014
• Melanie Margalis, 1:52.64 – 2014
• Ella Eastin, 1:52.77 – 2016
• Kathleen Baker, 1:52.80 – 2016
• Liz Pelton, 1:52.80 – 2016
• Kathleen Hersey, 1:53.33 – 2009

Not only did Eastin become the #7 swimmer in history in this event, but her performance also ranked #10 all time.

• Caitlin Leverenz, 1:51.77 – 2012
• Katinka Hosszu, 1:51.80 – 2012
• Missy Franklin, 1:52.11 – 2015
• Julia Smit, 1:52.31 – 2010
• Katinka Hosszu, 1:52.37 – 2012
• Maya DiRado, 1:52.50 – 2014
• Melanie Margalis, 1:52.64 – 2014
• Katinka Hosszu, 1:52.71 – 2011
• Ella Eastin, 1:52.77 – 2016

Eastin’s swim took down the 1:53.77 NAG mark set by Katie Hoff way back in 2007 by a full second.

Using our Swim Time Converter, Eastin’s time converts to a 2:09.48 LCM, a time which would have taken fifth in Kazan.

Meanwhile, in the 200 fly, Eastin swam a 1:51.96 in prelims to take down current Stanford teammate Janet Hu‘s 2014 record 1:52.92 also by about a second.

With this swim, she also moved up to 7th on the all-time performers list.

• Elaine Breeden, 1:49.92 – 2009
• Katinka Hosszu, 1:51.02 – 2010
• Kelsi Worrell, 1:51.11 – 2015
• Kathleen Hersey, 1:51.18 – 2009
• Mary Mohler, 1:51.28 – 2009
• Natalie Coughlin, 1:51.91 – 2002
• Ella Eastin, 1:51.96 – 2016

However, Eastin’s swim here didn’t quite crack the all-time top 10 performances list, which tops out at 1:51.45, mostly due to four top 10 performances by Hosszu and a pair each for Breeden and Worrell.

And, finally, using our Swim Time Converter, Eastin’s 200 yard fly converts out to 2:06.87, a time which would have taken sixth in Kazan.

Given these criteria, it appears that Eastin’s 200 IM National Age Group Record swim takes the cake, but just barely. Either way, we can look forward to some incredible performances, and hopefully even more NAGs (Eastin’s birthday is after NCAAs) later this month.

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