Reported by Lauren Neidigh.
WOMEN’S 200 FLY:
- NCAA Record: Ella Eastin (Stanford), 2018, 1:49.51
- American Record: Ella Eastin (Stanford), 2018, 1:49.51
- Championship Record: Elaine Breeden (Stanford), 2009, 1:49.92
- 2017 Champion: Ella Eastin (Stanford), 1:51.35
- GOLD: Ella Eastin, Stanford, 1:50.01
- SILVER: Katie Drabot, Stanford, 1:51.73
- BRONZE: Louise Hansson, USC, 1:52.25
USC’s Louise Hansson, the 100 fly champ, pushed the early lead in 24.52. Hansson flipped in 52.54 at the 100, nearly a second under record pace. Hansson lead through the 125-yard mark, but Stanford’s Ella Eastin pulled ahead with 50 yards to go. Eastin surged ahead to take the win by nearly 2 seconds in 1:50.01. Teammate Katie Drabot swam a lifetime best 1:51.73 to make it a Cardinal 1-2. Hansson held on for 3rd in 1:52.25, followed by Cal’s Katie McLaughlin (1:52.64) and Georgia’s Megan Kingsley (1:52.66).
Virginia’s Jenn Marrkand demolished the field in the B final, touching in 1:51.81 to take over a second off her former best. That makes her the 9th fastest performer ever in this event.
With all these great times and improvements shown in this meet it is more or less clear what to expect from swimmers in LCM competition. But there is a huge question mark about Ella Eastin. There was no improvement in IM LCM personal bests last year and these personal bests wouldn’t even make her a contender for the finals.
400IM – 4:38.97 (2013)
200IM – 2:10.54 (2016)
This meet strongly suggests that something is about to change. Will it be enough to get excited?
Don’t forget that Eastin’s actual best swim in the 400 IM was wiped off the board at U.S. Nationals last year because of that ridiculous “Lochte rule.” She was a 4:36.96 before the DQ, which would have put her in finals at the World Championships.
Thanks, this fact escaped my attention. But…
Does the “Locthe way” makes an IMer faster? Probably does. Otherwise what is the reason to use it. So should she swim without ‘violations’ it will bring her back to 4:37. Not exactly what would you expected from the recent NCAA record holder. Since Ledecky’s personal best is also 4:37 then Eastin’s time in 2017 looked like a right conversion of SCY into LCM The 3:54 this season is really something. It is not a simple correction but a break through that reflects radical changes in either technique or endurance or both. Have no clue what to expect.
The reason she did it is because she, like most kids, was trained to push off her back while doing a Freestyle flipturn. She was going all out and did what she has done a million times before. They stupidly decided that that would suddenly become illegal in this one instance (during IMs).
I’ve noticed that this year she has started flipping onto her side much more quickly on all of her Freestyle flipturns this year. She went pretty massive PRs in all of her Free events, so it doesn’t seem to have hurt her.
CRAIGH, the entire purpose of this discussion is an attempt to estimate what Eastin is capable of in LCM races. I don’t care how she turns.
It looks like for the type of swimmer she was last year the 3:57 SCY corresponds 4:37 LCM. It is different from Maya Dirado or Elizabeth Beisel type who were more successful in LCM than Ella having slightly slower personal bests in SCY.
Now personal best got bettered by 3sec. It is huge. Not only by its magnitude but also because it was done close to the limits area. Therefore just simple subtraction 3 sec from 4:37 would be probably not enough. If it mostly came from improving her endurance then we… Read more »
Not only is she top notch, she has shown she may be capable of going after some insane LCM records – the 2 fly record as well as the 2 & 4 IM’s LCM, maybe even soon. Wouldn’t that be something? She certainly has the potential. We’ll see!
Not sure if she can hit that 200 fly WR (probably the most absurd super-suit record outside of Biedermanns) but the AR is probably well within reach
Biedermann’s records are good but he has nothing on that W. 200 fly record. It’s absolutely unreal.
2:01?? It might be more than 20 years before that goes down.
I doubt she swims near the 200 fly WR, though I think she is primed for huge time. Jiao was 2:04.06 in textile and that’s still miles outside the world record. Belmonte is an excellent short course swimmer and she’s been consistently 204 mid/high after 1:59 SCM 200 fly. All the best to Ella
This girl is top notch. So classy.
I know, her interview is such a mature response to her great weekend, to her previous success/struggles and to her future success as well. I am pretty impressed with Meehans mental work with the team.