2020 ART ADAMSON INVITE
- Wednesday, November 18-Friday, November 20
- Teams: Texas A&M, LSU, Incarnate Word
- Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
- Prelims/Finals
- Format: Short Course Yards (SCY)
- Prelims @10AM Central, Finals @6PM Central
- 2021 NCAA Championship Qualifying Times
- Results Available on Meet Mobile: “Art Adamson Invitational”
- Live Results
Texas A&M junior Shaine Casas has done it again, this time becoming one of only 4 men to ever break the 44-second barrier with a 43.87 in the 100 yard backstroke on night 2 of the 2020 Art Adamson Invite in College Station.
For Casas, the time is a new SEC Record, Texas A&M program record, and Texas A&M pool record, lowering his own mark set Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Casas posted a monstrous 1:38.95 in the 200 yard IM to become the third-fastest performer all-time and take nearly a second off his previous lifetime best. He followed that up with another best time in the 100 backstroke leading off the medley relay with a 44.25. Tonight, Casas broke a barrier that only 3 other men in history have with his 43.87 in the 100 backstroke. Before tonight, Casas was ranked 8th all-time in the 100 back with his 44.25 from Wednesday, which also registers as the 4th-fastest relay split of all time for the 100 backstroke.
Top-10 Performers All-Time, Men’s 100 Yard Backstroke
- Ryan Murphy, 43.49
- Dean Farris, 43.66
- Shaine Casas, 43.87
- Coleman Stewart, 43.98
- Nick Thoman, 44.07
- Zane Waddell, 44.10
- Zachary Poti, 44.14
- Mark Nikolaev, 44.33
- John Shebat, 44.35
- Matt Grevers, 44.49
Comparing his splits, Casas has gradually improved both the first and the second 50s of his race, though tonight both splits were dramatically faster than ever in the past, especially the second 50. Casas was a 20.82 leading off the 200 medley relay this evening as well.
| Casas 10/16/20 | Casas 11/18/20 | Casas 11/19/20 | |
| 1st 50 | 21.37 | 21.24 | 21.07 |
| 2nd 50 | 23.03 | 23.01 | 22.80 |
| Total Time | 44.40 | 44.25 | 43.87 |
Looking at all the men that have ever broken 44 in the 100 backstroke we see that the 2 fastest, Murphy and Farris, were both out under 21 seconds on the first 50, though one thing all of them have in common is that they were under 23 on the second 50. Coleman Stewart, who has the slowest opening 50 by a sizable margin, boasts the second-fastest closing 50 behind only Murphy, the NCAA, U.S. Open, and American Record Holder and World Record holder in the 100 LCM backstroke.
| Murphy 2016 | Farris 2019 | Casas 2020 | Stewart 2019 | |
| 1st 50 | 20.96 | 20.85 | 21.07 | 21.38 |
| 2nd 50 | 22.53 | 22.81 | 22.80 | 22.60 |
| Total Time | 43.49 | 43.66 | 43.87 | 43.98 |
Casas will swim the 200 backstroke on Friday, the final day of the meet. Casas posted a 1:36.54 in October to become the 4th-fastest man all-time in the race, and given that he dropped nearly an entire second in the 200 IM, and now a full 0.53 in the 100 backstroke, he has a very reasonable shot at Murphy’s American Record of 1:35.73 set in 2016.
dang, connor oslin now pushed out of the top 10 of all time. he’s still number 1 in my heart
And the man can swim LCM maybe even better than SCY. Scary.
bruh
This guy is going to be a star. You can see even from one swim to the next that he’s still figuring out his stroke. This swim he had a much higher tempo than the night before, which is astounding for someone his size.
ISL dream this guy
Short course god that can swim long course.
Scary potential
Casas is seriously one of the most exciting talents in USA Swimming right now. From McAllen, TX – what a great story! I like his chances to make the Olympics in something – he’s got lots of options: 100 back? 2Back? 2IM? 1fly? 4×200 relay?
All of the above?
Seriously, multiple events seems likely.
Agreed. I think both backstrokes are his best shot. he was already :52 / 1:55 in 2019. He doesn’t really have to get any faster. But he IS faster. Much faster and still dropping big chunks.
The amount of swimmers the US has right now capable of going 52 or 1:55 or under in backstroke LCM is insane. 200 there’s Murphy, Katz, Pebley, and Casas and 100 there’s Murphy, Grevers, Casas, Pebley, and Andrew. And that’s without anyone having a serious break out swim.
A few too many Pebley’s and Andrew’s in that statement there…
This dude seriously went a 48.3 in prelims!! That is the ultimate flex
He’s just movin digits around. If he goes 1:44.32 in prelims tomorrow, look out.
1:23.44👀
1:53.8 prelims😂😂
He was 1:53 so maybe big things incoming. His foot looked like it was taped up, not sure what happened this morning
Nice.