If it anyone wasn’t quite ready to say that Reece Whitley represented the future of American breaststroke back when he set a new NAG record at the Area Pro Swim in Charlotte, they should be now.
In his first swim of this year’s Speedo Junior National Championships, Whitley smashed his own NAG record of 2:12.92 and the meet record of 2:12.88 set by Gunnar Bentz back in 2013, hitting the wall in 2:12.17.
This morning’s prelim swim was just 1/100th off the record. Most of his time tonight came off the back half of the swim, where he swam .74 seconds faster than this morning.
| Prelims (2:12.93) | Finals (2:12.17) |
| 30.54 | 30.60 |
| 33.78 (1:04.35) | 33.73 (1:04.33) |
| 34.22 | 34.21 |
| 34.39 (1:08.58) | 33.63 (1:07.84) |
Since he is only a 15-year-old (and at 6’8”, a 15-year-old who towers over the competition), we can expect the Whitley to keep lowering the age group record. Whitley’s swim is the 12th-fastest 200 breaststroke by an American this year, so he will be one to watch at Trials in 2016.
The time also would have ranked second all-time in the 17-18 age group, ahead of Josh Prenot’s 2:12.21 from 2012.
The current record holder in that age group, Kevin Cordes, will be swimming the 200 breast this week at the 2015 FINA World Championships. His record time was a 2:10.92 from the 2012 U.S. Open.
The “gold standard” for 15-year-olds in this event continues to be the 2:10.81 that Daniel Gyurta swam in Athens in 2004 en route to winning the silver medal.
Whitley will be competing at senior nationals next week. Last year, it took a 2:11.28 to get a spot on USA Swimming’s 2014-2015 senior national team, so he will need to drop about a second if that is one of his goals.
We will see Whitley next in the 200 IM. He swims for Penn Charter Aquatics under head coach Crystal Keelan.
Never have I seen such speed appear so effortless. I wonder how much he will be able to increase his turnover rate. What a contrast with swimmers like Peaty.
RACE VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY_llLrzRZI
He looked displeased with the time from his reaction on the video. He was probably gunning for a 2:09.
This young man is a beast ! Please have him yet freestyle too because I bet he would be good at that stroke too!
And what’s the use if he’s a breaststroker?
I will never understand that!
Why so many people want to transform all young American swimmers into another Michael Phelps?
There’s only one Michael Phelps.
All young Americans can’t be versatille and shine in many events.
By the way it’s much better to be great in 1 or 2 events rather than to be good in 6 or 7 events.
Let him be a great world-class breaststroker. The US team needs him.
I think it’s always good to try and make a swimmer as versatile as possible. Sure it would be more than nice to be absolutely great in just one or two events. But if you can make him great in more events, then I say go for it.
What a class act!