Women’s Meet
Caitlin Leverenz failed to match her 200 IM Automatic qualifying time on her follow-up 400 swim on Friday, but that doesn’t mean that her swim wasn’t spectacular. She marked a 4:05.67 (missing the A-cut by just .02), but that is the best time in the country by 2 seconds this year.
The 2nd-best time now belongs to Stanford sophomore Maya DiRado in 4:07.92. The pair both figured to be contenders for the NCAA title in this race, but based on this meet, Leverenz has separated herself in the battle. Stanford might be taking a different training tact this year than they have in the past, however, given that at last year’s Arena Invite, DiRado was 4 seconds faster.
The next shoe to drop in this race will be Katinka Hosszu when USC travels to the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational in early December. If history holds true, she’ll light up something well below a 4:05.
Beyond Leverenz’s swim, Arizona State was extremely impressive in the final two days of this meet. In the women’s 100 back, senior Kelli Kyle nearly grabbed a career-best, and barely grabbed a victory, in 53.45 with a great back-half swim. That put her .01 ahead of defending Cal National Champion Cindy Tran.
The Sun Devils also picked up a day-two win in the 100 breaststroke at the hands of Rebecca Ejdervik in 1:00.21. That’s the 2nd-best time of the season. Typically, this would be a big rest meet for her, but that didn’t appear to be as true this year as it was in past years. In 2009, she travelled to the European Short Course Championships. Given that this is a pre-Olympic year, she might be saving her winter rest for that meet this year.
On the third day of competition, UC-San Diego’s Alex Henley set a new program record in the women’s 200 back with a mark of 1:57.11. That clears (by .03) her best time from the 2010-2011 season.
Cal’s Liv Jensen swam a 48.96 to win a 100 free that didn’t shine quite as brightly as the rest of this meet did. Still, swimming slow in the fall is very typical for Jensen, even compared to her teammates, and never seems to hinder her in March.
Leverenz ended up getting her second NCAA automatic qualifying time on the final day of competition with a 2:09.23 to just sneak under the mark (by .02). That makes her the 2nd swimmer under 2:10 this year (though she’s still well behind the 2:07.0 Breeja Larson put up in Tennessee).
Men’s Meet
Stanford’s David Nolan ended the meet with two more victories, and nationally-best times, on each of the 2nd and 3rd days of the meet. On day 2, he touched first in the 100 fly in 47.04, to just best National Teamer Bobby Bollier (2nd – 47.30). Then he would come back the next day and take the 200 back in 1:42.05. Both of those swims were within a tenth of his career-best times.
In this meet, Nolan really showed off his versatility. If most people were to name his three best events, the 200 IM would be the only one that he’s swum this meet. The 100 fly and 200 backstroke are realistically probably only his 4th-and-5th best individual events, yet that didn’t stop him from posting strong victories in each.
In the 100 backstroke, which Nolan will likely revert to as a primary event next season, still saw a 1-2 finish from the Cardinal. Junior Matthew Swanston took the win in 47.50 and freshman Jonathan Edwards took 2nd in 47.73. In the 100 free, another potential Nolan event, Stanford’s Aaron Wayne took a win in 43.55. UC-Santa Barbara also had a strong performance in that race, with 50 champ Chris Peterson touching 2nd in 43.75 and Kevin Feguson touching 4th in 44.02.
Those two led UCSB to a runner-up finish in the 400 free relay in 2:56.37, and they could earn themselves an NCAA berth this year.
Stanford, however, was huge in that race. They posted a 2:54.08. That blows away the best time in the country this year (previously held by Arizona, though UCSB also cleared that time). There was a lot of concern about this relay, as it graduated 4 swimmers from last year, but with a 43.3 leadoff from Nolan and a 42.6 2nd-leg from Wayne, they look as good as ever. Bollier had to join in on this one, and anchored in a 44.7, which is not an ideal race for him, so finding one more true sprint freestyler would really firm up this group. Senior Rob Andrew led off the B-relay in 44.35, which could be that solution.
Speaking of Bollier, he dominated his best event, the men’s 200 fly, in 1:43.47 on the final day. That’s a very strong swim for him (even in the context of a probable rest meet) and is the best time he’s swum at this point in the season so far in his career.
Full meet results available here.
Can’t wait to see how fast Nolan will be able to put up his times in March!!!
With respect to a change in Stanford women’s training approach this year – this year they have added Texas Invite as their fall “peak” meet. As Braden noted, last year’s peak meet was the Arena Invite.
I think he was referring more to the fast time Nolan posted rather than how much he won by
I am not sure you can call Nolan’s victory by 1/100th in the 200 back a ”strong victory”