Emory junior Andrew Wilson had a great weekend at the Miami (OH) Invitational, breaking the Division III NCAA records in both the 100 and 200 yard breaststrokes.
Wilson, the runner-up in both breaststrokes at last year’s NCAA Championships, exploded over the weekend, smashing his own personal bests in both races by huge margins. In the 100 breast on Friday, Wilson went 53.41, breaking the national record by two tenths. His previous lifetime-best? The 54.26 that earned him 2nd place at last year’s NCAAs.
The previous 100 breast record was 53.61 set by Denison’s Damon Rosenberg in 2013.
Then on Saturday, Wilson followed his performance with a drop of nearly a second and a half to shatter the 200 breast record. Wilson’s time of 1:57.18 crushed the record of 1:57.79 set by Whitworth’s Rory Buck back in 2011.
Wilson’s previous best was 1:58.54, also from last year’s NCAA Championships.
Both of the NCAA Champions from a year ago return ahead of Wilson – Washington University of St. Louis sophomore Michael Lagieski in the 100 and Occidental senior Steven van Deventer in the 200. But they’ve both got their work cut out for them to match Wilson, the new fastest breaststroker in Division III history.
You can find full day-by-day results of the meet on the Miami Redhawks website here.
Breaststroke swims were amazing, but let’s not forget he was also less than a second off of the DIII 2IM record that has stood since 1997. He also split a 52.8 on his 100breast split in the medley… pretty sure that’s an all-time DIII record too but I dunno.
So, in summary, woaaaaaahhhhh.
Congratulations!!! Andrew is a very hard working and dedicated swimmer. He has certainly come a long way…came in with a low 59 in the 100 breast as a freshman and was not even taken on the travel squad to Miami as a freshman. A shout out should also be given to the awesome coaching at Emory lead by Coach Jon Howell.Can’t wait to see what he does at Conference and then at NCAA’s. Go Eagles!!!!