Tonight at the Jim Devine Memorial Invitational hosted by the Columbia Swim Club, 12 year old Michael Andrew of the Lawrence, Kansas broke the 50 Free National Age Group record in a 22:08. He shaved off almost a tenth of a second from the previous mark of 22:17 set by Andrew Jovanovia in 2007.
Andrew also has seven 10& under NAG’s. He recently moved from South Dakota’s Aberdeen Aquaholics to the Lawrence, where he’s coached independently by his father Peter, and the move doesn’t seem to have hindered his training at all. He’s already quite tall (roughly 6 feet), and is likely to continue growing (his dad is 6’7, and his mom is over 6 feet tall). He is a very technical swimmer with very little wasted motion – given that he’s unlikely to be maxed out in height, Andrew’s development could be for real and continue well into his college years.
No surprise, Michael Andrew swam 22.26 two weeks ago. But the most impressive with him, it’s that he’s the best of his generation in all strokes. He was at the Tom Dolan Invitational last year in December, perhaps he will go this year and will beat many NAG records. The thing I have noticed about him, it’s that he’s not as fast over 100 yards or meters. Perhaps his coach doesn’t push him too much in training for a long career. I look at NAG records and I ask this question : is Michael Andrew just a NAG record holder or a future star? But it’s always funny to see young swimmers beating records.