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Nicolás García Saiz, who hails from Madrid, Spain, has announced his intention to join the Virginia Tech H2Okies:
“Orgulloso por empezar una nueva etapa en Virginia Tech y darles las gracias por brindarme esta oportunidad para poder crecer tanto como atleta, estudiante y persona.
Excited to announce my commitment to Virginia Tech! Thank you for the opportunity 🔥GO HOKIES!”
Garcia trains under Pedro Simón at the club team CN Gredos San Diego. He specializes in backstroke and made the 200 back final at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In prelims, he clocked a 1:57.62 to advance to the semi-finals. He finished third in his semi-final with 1:56.35, edging Bryce Mefford by .02, to qualify fifth for the final. Swimming in lane 2, he swam a 1:59.06 to come in eighth.
Garcia represented Spain this summer at European Aquatics Championships. He also swam at the European Aquatics Championships in Budapest in 2020, competing in the 50 (25.71), 100 (54.97), and 200 back (1:59.59) and in the 4×100 medley relay. At FINA World Junior Championships in Budapest in 2019, he swam the 100 back (56.43) and 200 back (2:01.13).
At Virginia Tech, Garcia will join fellow Spanish nationals Carles Coll, Nadia González (Hugo’s sister), and Luis Domínguez.
Garcia would have been a B-finalist in the 200 back at ACCs last season but it took 45.53/1:41.08 to score in the backstroke events at 2021 NCAA Division I Championships.
Best LCM times (converted to SCY):
- 200 back – 1:56.35 (1:42.65)
- 100 back – 54.60 (48.10)
- 50 back – 25.50 (22.43)
Garcia will join the H2Okies in January 2022 and be in a class that includes: Ben Eckerson, Hayden Jay, Jacob Ryan, Joseph Hong, Luan Grobbelaar, Luis Domínguez, and Nikolas Lee-Bishop.
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Didn’t Ned Skinner have a 1:56 backstroker Long Course a few years ago for the Hokies that was only 1:40? Conversions are a mess
“H2Okies” is goofy. Really goofy.
VT doesnt brand themselves that way as far as I am aware. Swimswam calls them that b/c there is a club team that is not currently associated with the college team called the H2okies
They use the hashtag on their official instagram account.
Ah yes because college swimming has to be 100% serious and boring at all times. Have a little fun.
Finalist at the Olympics but only B final at ACCs LOL
Those conversions are so wrong
Foreigners generally have to deal with their country’s rules when coming. I doubt Spain wanted their Olympic finalist leaving their country.
Maybe he took pictures in various school shirts and then posted the VT picture once he made his choice.
That conversion should be faster! How old is he?
The conversion should be like 4 seconds faster at the minimum!
I think Casas is actually a 1:51 backstroker in LC.
I’d say 1:35 generally converts to 1:53/1:54. He was 1:55 when he was 1:37 – so it sorta checks out. Murphy is 1:35 and 1:53, so I guess that checks out too. I’d say Casas has at least a 1:54 in him with full focus and training.
Based on that conversion, you’d probably be correct
Dean F. is faster than Shane. I heard that he swam a 1:49.9 in the 200m LC backstroke, while wearing a drag suit.
Another international commitment, another reminder that LCM-SCY conversions are *always* slow.
I think they did scm to yards
An Olympic finalist not scoring at NCAAs, they joke tells itself
My conversion system which uses a different formula for each stroke (with a little gender differentiation based upon overall speed differences) has his 200 at 1:39.26 and 100 at 46.37. I think its a pretty conservative formula. For comparison, Murphy’s 51.85 converts to 43.85 but that’s reflective of the fact that LCM is a bit harder to master. McKeown’s 57.35 converts to 49.12.
SNARKY’S BACKSTROKE CONVERSION FORMULA
LCM to SCY formula: (TIME in seconds) x .9133 – 3.5 seconds per 100 distance (women 3.25).
SCY to LCM formula (TIME in seconds) + 3.5 seconds (women 3.25) per 100 distance x 1.095.