The HardCoreSwim of the week goes to Wisconsin junior Ivy Martin for her 22.38 from the two-day Georgia/Wisconsin dual meet over the weekend.
Sure, the defending national champions from Georgia looked great at this meet, as one would expect, but even in the glow of the freshly-hung championship banner, Martin’s 22.38 stood out as one of the all-time great early season sprint swims in NCAA history.
While Martin’s swim is not the fastest in-season swim ever, it may just have been the fastest 50 free in October history, clearing a 22.45 done by Cal’s Liv Jensen in 2010. It is certainly the best October 50 freestyle as far back as the USA Swimming times database goes, which is the beginning of the 2007-2008 season.
Looking at top candidates before that, Kara Lynn Joyce is the most obvious, but her best ever October time of 22.7 was done in high school – she was never a quick starter to her collegiate season. Before that, the early-season records become a bit murky.
No-matter: it’s fairly safe to say that this is one of the biggest season-opening statement swims we’ve ever seen at the collegiate level.
Martin’s star continues to rise as somewhat of a late bloomer in the sport. She was a 23.10 in the 50 free coming out of high school, which is certainly top-tier, but not the elite time necessarily it would have been c. 2005. She’s slowly marched her time down in two years at Wisconsin, including a 6th-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. Overall in the 2012-2013 season, she had the two fastest swims in the country by anyone besides eventual champion Margo Geer of Arizona.
With the confidence of a U.S. Open title from this summer now behind her, Martin looks like she’s gunning for number one this year. Geer won’t be scared, nor will Faith Johnson or Chantal van Landeghem (great sprinters have to be either fearless, or at least appear to be), but for the rest of us, this start for Martin’s season is scary.
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