Bobby Finke Hits 7:51.66 For #3 U.S. 800 Free This Season In SPA vs AAC Dual

SPA vs AAC Dual Meet

• Saturday, August 1, 2020
• North Shore Pool / St. Petersburg, FL
• Long Course Meters (LCM) format
• Full results

Florida stars Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith competed at a long course club dual meet in Florida this week, with Finke hitting the third-best 800 free of any American this season.

Finke, who smashed American, NCAA, and U.S. Open records in the 1650-yard freestyle this college season, went 7:51.66 to win the 800 free, which was probably the banner event of the dual meet’s 14-event schedule. That swim is the third-best 800 free of Finke’s entire career, and easily his best in-season swim. Finke was 7:47.58 at U.S. Nationals last summer and 7:51.45 at Nationals the year prior, the only two times he’s been faster than he was this past weekend.

That time ranks Finke #3 among Americans this season behind two swims from U.S. Open in December:

Top U.S. Men – 800 free (2019-2020 season)

1. Jordan Wilimovsky – 7:49.76 (US Open)
2. Zane Grothe – 7:51.53 (US Open)
3. Bobby Finke – 7:51.66 (SPA-AAC Dual)
4. Nick Norman – 7:56.30 (PSS Des Moines)
5. Michael Brinegar – 7:59.37 (US Open)

This weekend’s 800 free was full of fireworks. Finke’s Florida Gators teammate Kieran Smith also swam, going after a 400 free split. Smith – who set NCAA, American, and U.S. Open records in the 500-yard free this college season – was 3:54.17 at the 400-mark. That’s about 6.4 seconds off his career-best, set in December.

19-year-old Caleb Kravitz was 8:10.20 in that 800 free, dropping six seconds off his lifetime-best. Kravitz is a St. Petersburg Aquatics swimmer who just graduated high school and will join Finke and Smith at the University of Florida in the fall. His time drop over the weekend constitutes a new Olympic Trials cut, with USA Swimming confirming that Trials standards will remain intact despite the one-year Olympic delay.

Yet another Florida Gator was third in that race: Brennan Gravley in 8:12.47.

A few other notable swims from the dual meet:

• Finke also hit a new personal best in the 200 back, notching a new Olympic Trials cut. He was 1:59.89 for his first swim ever under 2:00. Last month, Finke dropped from 2:03.90 to 2:00.49 in this race, and cut another six tenths of a second over the weekend.
• St. Petersburg 17-year-old Ben Cote won the 400 IM in 4:27.68. That’s a drop of almost seven seconds for Cote, a rising high school senior.
• Although all 14 events were listed with mixed-gender results, 15-year-old Sasha Fiola appears to be the top female finisher in at least three races: the 50 free, 50 back, and 100 back. Fiola was 27.05 in free and 32.95 and 1:10.41 in the backstrokes. She previously had no long course swims registered in the USA Swimming database.