2016 U.S. WINTER JUNIOR CHAMPS – WEST
- Wednesday, December 7th – Saturday, December 10th
- College Station, TX (Texas A&M University)
- Psych sheets
- Meet information
- Live results
18-year-old Ryan Hoffer went 18.88 in prelims of the 50 yard freestyle in prelims of USA Swimming’s West Winter Junior Championships, becoming just the second 18-and-under ever to break 19 seconds.
That 18.88 betters Hoffer’s previous best, a 19.06 that he put up almost exactly a year ago. Hoffer was 19.06 to win the Winter West Junior Championship last year. That time was also second all-time for the 17-18 age group. He’s now just two tenths off the National Age Group record of 18.67 held by Olympian Caeleb Dressel.
Hoffer will have a chance to go even faster tonight, holding the top qualifying spot into finals. Behind Hoffer, no other swimmer even broke 20 seconds this morning, much less 19.
It’s a bit of following in Dressel’s footsteps for Hoffer. Dressel, who competed for the Bolles School Sharks in Florida during his high school days, became the first high school age swimmer to break 19 at this very meet in 2013. Dressel was 18.98 at the time. He now competes for Florida, where he’s won three individual NCAA titles in his two years of NCAA swimming so far.
Hoffer is from the opposite end of the country, training out of Arizona and competing for the Scottsdale Aquatic Club. He’s verbally committed to compete for the California Golden Bears next season in the NCAA. Hoffer’s birthday is in July, so he still has six more months to go after Dressel’s NAG record.
Hoffer officially becomes the 27th member of the elusive “18 second club.” Here’s the list of men (based on USA Swimming’s database) who have broken 19 seconds in a 50 yard freestyle, along with their career-bests:
- Caeleb Dressel, 18.20
- Cesar Cielo, 18.47
- Matt Targett, 18.52
- Vladimir Morozov, 18.63
- Kristian Gkolomeev, 18.64
- Nathan Adrian, 18.66
- Adam Brown, 18.72
- Fred Bousquet, 18.72
- Simonas Bilis, 18.76
- Brad Tandy, 18.80
- Alex Righi, 18.82
- Jimmy Feigen, 18.84
- Marcelo Chierighini, 18.85
- Paul Powers, 18.85
- Brad DeBorde, 18.86
- Ben Wildman-Tobriner, 18.87
- Alex Coville, 18.87
- Matt Grevers, 18.88
- Ryan Hoffer, 18.88
- Jakob Andkjaer, 18.89
- Ryan Held, 18.92
- Josh Schneider, 18.93
- Derek Toomey, 18.95
- Austin Staab, 18.96
- Seth Stubblefield, 18.97
- George Bovell, 18.98
- Gideon Louw, 18.99
Hoffer is too good! In fact, Scottsdale’s sprint group in general is just insane. They had Jack Blake second at 20 flat and Ray Van Deusen ninth at 20.4 as well.
U.S. men’s sprinting is looking really good for the future (especially if Hoffer can get his LC together), Kibler and Jack Dolan come to mind. Three guys that could potentially have very fast 50/100s in 2020 along with Dressel and Held.
Don’t forget beast Nick Magana! 8th place 50 fly at Peru’s nationals last spring! What an animal.
Looking at the results he swam lights out at Texas invite a week ago. 44.5/1:40 in the freestyles
Article said he only verbal commitment to cal? Would love to see him sign with sprint power house program like NC State so he can reach his full potential. Maybe he be first person under 18!!
He signed with Cal, stop trolling.
pass up the program that made Nathan Adrian a Olympic gold medalist in the 100 freestyle. LOL
So fast…silly fast! Just for the sake of stirring the pot, though, I would like to see the rules changed to 10 yards/meters under for short course. I think underwaters are important, and there should always be a focus on developing that aspect of a swimmer, but these really aren’t “swimming” times anymore. I think it would be more fun to watch athletes actually swim. Obviously this is just my opinion, and geared toward my tastes. I have lost my enthusiasm for the SCY 50 and 100 Free, and even the 100 Back and Fly to some extent.
How about we continue to let the sport develop and let people continue to find new and different ways of getting faster (Like the Lochte-Turn) instead of stifling innovation?
My idea wouldn’t stifle innovation, it would simply reduce the impact of underwater kicking. Underwater kicking was innovative in the late 1980’s (Berkoff) not so much anymore. It could easily be argued that so much focus on underwater kicking in SCY races has hurt the US in LCM sprinting. We are already at a disadvantage internationally because we train SCY for 7-8 months out of the year. In a SCY freestyle race about 65% of the race can be done underwater, but in a LCM freestyle race, only 30% can be done underwater. Top water swimming is a much larger portion in international competition.
Necessity leads to innovation. Maybe, just maybe a renewed emphasis on SWIMMING if made a… Read more »
I’m 5’9. My potential in swimming is necessitated by my underwater skills. You cannot tell me you’re going to unfairly limit swimmers of certain body types more than others. We’re done with the supersuit era. If I develop to be 6.3 seconds for my first 15m of a race, that still requires work. I still have to grind to get that advantage. I’m still squatting my heart out to get a better pushoff. I’m still stretching my ankles every night till they burn.
Why is it less entertaining? Why are underwater swimmers less worthy of success? I’d rather watch Phelps in 07 destroy his turns than Zhang Lin in 09 outstroke his competition. Please explain why you’re tired of… Read more »
Because they are all literally becoming the same stroke. Less diversity is less interesting.
Napolean, your comment makes several assumptions, but very little sense. By your logic, there should be no limit to how far a swimmer should be able to kick underwater. I don’t enjoy watching it because I can’t see it, especially live. I think ultra fast kicking underwater is impressive but not as complex as swimming, so I don’t find it as interesting. Sorry you are vertically challenged, but underwater kicking doesn’t necessarily remove the advantage a taller swimmer has. I never said anyone was more or less worthy of success, I just think the sport is becoming homogenized.
Lol sounds like someone doesn’t like losing a body length off of each wall. Adapt don’t complain.
Damn hope he really finds his gear for long course. But hey id be more than happy with a scholarship to cal and a few nags
Ya on point tip
Interesting to note that Florida and Stanford are the only schools to produce two American swimmers to go under 18.9 in the 50 free. To be fair though, Coville, Righi, and Feigen did it in the suit year of 2009, so (especially given their reputation for being an IM and distance school) this makes what Florida was able to do with deBorde and Dressel all the more impressive. More blue-chip American sprint recruits need to start considering Florida.
Alternatively, we just need more Americans to sprint. The more damning trend is that only 2 of the 10 fastest 50 yard freestylers in history are Americans (Dressel #1, Adrian #6).
And I counted 14 of the top 27 were foreign athletes…so half of the men in this highly regarded club trained to compete against the US internationally …ouch!
12 of them are foreign but please tell us your list of 14, I want to see which two Americans you think are sleeper agents.
Cal did it too
Cal- Nathan adrian 18.66, Seth Stubblefield 18.97. Still impressive
He said under 18.9. Not 18.9
Righi went to Yale
I’m aware of that. Feigen also went to Texas. Coville went to Stanford, but the point was that three of the 10 Americans who have been able to go under 18.9 happened during the suit year.
Already the 18 high I predicted. In prelims. Crazy.
How many strokes in his race?
I am saying not very many Hoffer is underwater boy!!!
One Cal Bear swam fast, Daniel Carr on the other hand looked like he got run over by his last name. C Final for such a high profile recruit… ouch.
He got a best in the 200IM which is his better event.
In fact it looks like he got a best in the 50 free too. He’s not a sprinter, he’s a backstroker. Maybe check that you know what you’re talking about before you comment.
Would have been third at NCAA last year to go along with his 3rd place level 100 free