Disclaimer: Dolfin 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 Dolfin 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.
Sadly, it was a harshly-truncated week of swimming. But Matt Brownstead got in a couple of history-making swim under the wire.
As the global coronavirus pandemic raged, Brownstead torched a 19.24 at Pennsylvania’s 3A high school state meet. Later in the same session, he crushed an 18.67 anchor on State College Prep’s 200 free relay.
The individual swim broke the national high school record, both overall and for public schools. The old record was held by Caeleb Dressel, now a world champ and considered one of the top swimmers on the planet. Dressel had been faster as a high school, but at the club level, where he went 18 as a senior. The high school senior Brownstead moves to #4 all-time among boys in the 17-18 age group – he’s behind the only three U.S. juniors to break 19 seconds.
ALL-TIME TOP 10: BOYS 17-18 50 FREE
| PLACE | SWIMMER | TIME |
| 1 | Caeleb Dressel | 18.67 |
| 2 | Ryan Hoffer | 18.71 |
| 3 | Michael Andrew | 18.88 |
| 4 | Matt Brownstead | 19.24 |
| 5 | Drew Kibler | 19.35 |
| 6 | Seth Stubblefield | 19.41 |
| 7 | David Curtiss | 19.42 |
| 8 | Tony Ervin | 19.43 |
| 8 | Gus Borges | 19.43 |
| 10 | Matt Grevers | 19.44 |
The following day, Brownstead went a career-best 43.29 in the 100 free prelims, qualifying first. In the middle of that day, with a flood of sports-related cancellations across the country, the PIAA canceled the 3A meet before finals could take place. But even without a finals swim in the 100, Brownstead still took full advantage of what turned out to be his last shot at a history-making swim.
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This was amazing. Can’t believe I never heard of this kid before these performances. Can’t wait for next week’s swim of the week. Oh wait…