Missy Franklin is quickly becoming the Lebron James of swimming. Rarely do high school athletes set the world afire as much as Missy has in the last 6 months. That fire burned a little brighter on Saturday afternoon, in front of a live, international audience on ESPN3; in front of an overflow, sell-out crowd; and with a huge boost to the sport of swimming.
Franklin, swimming for Regis Jesuit High School, topped the field at the Colorado 5A High School State Championships in the 200 free with a time of 1:43.15 to better her 1:43.98 from last night. Overall between prelims and finals, Missy cut two full seconds off of Chelsea Chenault’s old record from May.
For the time being, Dagny Knutson, who like Franklin is one of the greatest high school swimmers ever, will hold on to her overall mark of 1:42.81.
In her other individual event, the 100 back, she was able to improve off of her prelims mark, but her 52.76 was short of her own State/National Independent School Records of 52.30 set at last year’s meet. She was hampered in the 100 back given that the 25-yard course at the EPIC pool in Fort Collins was set in the shallow-end of the 50-meter pool. This kept her from taking full advantage of her underwaters, but that’s still a great result.
In her final swim, in a surprise move Regis Jesuit moved Franklin to the anchor leg of the 400 free relay, which eliminated her shot at another record. Unofficially, we’ve been told by those in attendance that she split a 47.4 (that was lost in the excitement of a team battle). For comparison, that split is faster than what Cal’s Liv Jensen, a former NCAA Champion, finished their 400 free relay in.
Franklin also led off the Regis Jesuit 200 medley relay with a split of 24.77 en route to her team taking a 2nd-place overall finish in 1:46.53.
Arizona commit Bonnie Brandon, who is one of the top-5 swimmers in this year’s senior class nation-wide, crushed her own 200 IM State Record by winning in 1:59.09. That cut exactly three seconds off of what her Colorado HS Record was coming into the meet at 2:02.09 (though she swam a 2:01 in prelims).
Brandon would crush another State Record in the 500 free with a time of 4:43.52. That cut 8 seconds off of her time from her sophomore season that stood as a previous record, though it was 5 seconds off of her personal best. In the altitude of 5,000 feet in Fort Collins, however, that’s about an even mark to her lifetime best. The 500’s are the races that are hit the hardest by altitude, in terms of a fair time comparison.
Aside from the fireworks posted by Brandon and Franklin, however, the excitement of the team battle took over at the end of the meet. The final score came down to the 400 free relay, where Bonnie Brandon and Cherry Creek had to win, and have the team from Fossil Ridge come in 3rd or lower, and they would reclaim the state title that eluded them last season.
Fossil Ridge’s Rhianna Williams had an awesome anchor leg (she held off Franklin from Regis’ 3rd-place relay), and though she couldn’t quite catch Brandon, she did touch in 2nd to give her team their first ever state championship.
This neat went down nearly-perfectly as a sample
I have watched the webcast on chsaa.tv and there was a great atmosphere. When you compare the crowd between the Colorado high school state championships and the Missouri grand prix there’s a big difference. I like this team support.
And it was a very complete and interesting webcast. There was a great interview of Missy Franklin. I haven’t all understood but she’s definitely a great person. I have noticed she was wearing an Arena suit. I have always seen her in Speedo since 2010. Perhaps it was a test. And her coach Todd Schmitz was also in the webcast. I like his passion for swimming. He has said Missy will swim at the Speedo sectionals in Federal Way at… Read more »
Excuse me if I haven’t the necessary vocabulary to be well understood but I think for a french I’m good in english. And I don’t think many americans are better in french than I’m in english. And good luck to Missy! She has said she was learning french online for some months. It’s not easy but she can do it. She was already my favorite swimmer so it’s still another reason to support her.
I want to be clear here. I don’t criticize pure short course specialists. When I watch Tom Shields or Cindy Tran in yards it’s a big show, no problem with that. But I don’t want to make the list of incredible swimmers in short course… Read more »
The “truth” for me personally is “straight swimming”, so yes I agree with bobo.
I would have to disagree totally about short course being a “lie” for the backstroke. It is a totally different race than LCM. For LCM you can cover up bad starts, bad turns and bad streamlines with power and turnover. To win the NCAA’s you have to be good at all parts and any weekness in your swim will show up.
I am not taking anything away from Missy, she could be the best female swimmer I have ever seen. She does however have one weakness, in her turns, and that shows up in SCY backstroke. If you want a comparison, watch Bootsmas turns, they are simply amazing. Once she figures that out she’ll rewrite all of the record books.
That’s a good point, Simon. Whether or not they’re a lie all depends on your perspective on what the “truth” is.
One question with Missy is WILL she ever figure out the starts/turns, or does she need to? Aaron Peirsol had a pretty successful career with terrible underwaters. Has Missy maxed out on top of the water yet? Doesn’t seem like it, though her coach would know better than us. Once we see her long course times plateau, that’s when it will be time for her to see what she can do to drop more time via her underwaters.
Josh, I’m fully aware of a once in a generation, beyond her competition swimmer like Sippy Woodhead, you dont have to get all historical on me.. The comparison was to Knudson, who is a really good swimmer, but not nearly as accomplished as Missy already is. My issue, which I apologize for not communicating clearly, was that I feel that these two swimmers are not comparable in the pool. Knudson was/is a tremendous short course swimmer while Missy has established herself as a long course AND big meet swimmer.
I don’t know how many 16 year old world record holders, world champs there are. What I do know is what I have seen. I agree with your concern for her… Read more »
I knew it would be difficult for her to beat that 1.42.81. She isn’t fully tapered, she swims in altitude and 8 minutes after a 50 back I find her time of 1.43.15 very good. It’s clear that at her top condition and at the sea level she would swim a little 1.41. But it’s a new PB for her and it’s always a good thing; Ok she was faster in the 100 back last year at the same meet but she didn’t have a 200 free before. And again you can’t swim a very fast 100 back in yards if you don’t have big underwaters. I think it was a fun meet for Missy Franklin, she loves the team… Read more »
When I said I hope she does better than Knutson, I was obviously referring to her improvement after graduating. Knutson chose to go pro and still isn’t on the same level that she was back in high school. If Franklin finished today as a world champ and scm wr holder, she definitely wouldn’t be “one of the greatest female .. swimmers of all time”. Do you have any idea how many female swimmers have won world champ titles at 16 or under? As Josh said, Sippy Woodhead won 3 gold and 3 silver at 14 competing against juicers, and she was around a foot and a half shorter than Franklin is now. Just to name a few, in the past… Read more »
errmmm… does the name Shane Gould ring the bell, anyone?