2021 NCAA MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 24 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Cal (1x) – 2019 results
- Streaming:
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
While usually the fastest relay splits are going to come on teams that are vying for titles, that’s certainly not always the case, as Pitt’s Blaise Vera demonstrated tonight. Swimming in one of the earlier heats of timed finals of the 200 medley relay, Vera cranked out a 19.52 split on the fly leg. According to USA Swimming, that’s the 3rd-fastest split ever, and makes him the 2nd-fastest man ever, behind only former Texas Longhorn and 2016 Olympic 100 Fly Gold Medalist Joe Schooling.
All Time Top 50 Fly Relay Splits
- 19.36 – Joe Schooling – 2016
- 19.45 – Joe Schooling – 2017
- 19.52 – Blaise Vera – 2021
- 19.60 Dylan Carter/Joe Schooling – 2018
- (tie)
Vera has relatively quietly been one of the fastest men in the country over the last couple of seasons, and he made his first NCAA A-final yesterday, finishing 7th in the 50 free. He finished in top 4 in the 50 free, 100 fly, and 100 free at last month’s ACC Championships, where he also split a 19.68 on Pitt’s 200 medley relay that appears to also rank in the top ten splits ever.
Despite Vera’s speed, Pitt’s 200 medley relay ended up going 1:24.65 after coming in with a 1:24.20, and ended up 20th overall, although with such a tight field, then only missed scoring by about a quarter of a second.
Last night, Vera took 7th in the 50 free with a 19.39, making him Pitt’s first First Team All-American since 1980. (Teammate Cooper Van Der Laan matched that feat with an A-final appearance in the 100 breast Thursday night). Vera finished 25th in the 100 fly this morning with a 46.42, although his seed time of 45.29 would’ve put him into the B-final, and he’ll got another shot at scoring tomorrow in the 100 free, where he’s seeded 11th with a time of 42.21,
Imagine if he didn’t wear his goggles over his cap
They were in fact under the cap good sir
Blaisé blaisé blaisé
Like the article says, as they aren’t a huge contender, Vera has been sneakily fast the last couple years…glad to see him getting headlines. 2nd best performer in history is WILD, Awesome to see Pitt have both qualifiers get All-American at the meet!
Hopefully they can get more top-end talent to PGH! Coach Hargis and staff have shown they can develop their athletes very well. Western PA has a great HS/club swimming culture, hopefully they can rake in more top talent!
What ever happened to those NA swimmers that went out West? I hope their getting a good education.
Gonzalez and Mihm are both at Stanford if that’s what you mean.
Gonzalez swam on their 800 free relay at NCAAs and Mihm was an alternate for this meet as a freshman.
Both are very smart guys as well
Real talk could we have gotten an 18 fly leg out of Dressel? Mans went 19.9 opening up a 100
Damn I believe he would’ve been close
Dressel’s flying starts are about on par with his flat starts – there aren’t many times when he’s split faster than his best time. So the real question is could Dressel have gone an 18 50 fly from a flat start?
I think yes. He opened his 100 fly in a 19.9 in 2018. At the same meet when he was EXHAUSTED he opened his 100 free in an 18.9 – around 1.3 seconds slower than his individual 50. If there’s the same pattern in opening 50’s from the 100 free to the 100 fly, he absolutely has an 18.9 50 fly in him
They sent two swimmers to NCAAs and both made an A final, that’s a crazy high ceiling for a team without a lot of depth.
Had Vera for four years and recruited zilch behind him….
Hopefully this will keep talent in-state 🤞🏻
Outsplit his anchor leg
Stonks
If he is uS citizen, that makes him the fastest American scy 50 butterfly splitting person ever.
He is! Looks like he is from Mississippi, and, as you stated, the fastest American 50 flier on record.