Texas A&M junior Shaine Casas was on track for a huge NCAA Championship meet last season as a sophomore before the novel coronavirus canceled that event in March, but it looks like he’s picking right up again for his junior season.
In a video posted on Instagram by Texas A&M assistant Jason Calanog, Casas swam a 1:37.9 in the 200 yard back. The swim comes with an asterisk, because it looks like Casas goes past 15 meters off the start – and you can even overhear someone on video saying that he was probably long.
Casas was wearing a racing suit in the swim.
Regardless of the 15 meter violation, at this point of the season, swimming a time that fast this early, even if we sag it a few tenths for the start, is a bellwether for Casas nationally in the NCAA.
His best time in the 200 yard back in official competition is a 1:37.20 done at the SEC Championships last season to win the conference title. That broke Ryan Lochte’s SEC Meet Record of 1:38.29.
His time was the top-ranked swim in the NCAA last season, .15 seconds better than Texas junior Austin Katz.
Approximate Splits:
- 22.2
- 47.4 (25.2)
- 1:12.2 (24.8)
- 1:37.9 (25.7)
Top Returning NCAA Swimmers for 2020-2021 Season
Known returning swimmers. Listed class is classification for 2020-2021 season.
- Shaine Casas, Jr, Texas A&M – 1:37.20
- Austin Katz, Sr, Texas – 1:37.35
- Daniel Carr, Sr, Cal – 1:37.87
- Mitchell Whyte, Jr, Louisville – 1:39.46
- Clark Beach, Sr, Florida – 1:39.56
- Hug Gonzalez, Jr, Cal – 1:39.66
- Jack Dahlgren, Jr, Missouri – 1:39.93
- Sam Tornqvist, Sr, Virginia Tech – 1:40.10
- Gabriel Fantoni, Sr, Indiana – 1:40.31
- Michael Daly, Jr, Penn State – 1:40.63
Not included in this list is incoming freshman Carson Foster at Texas, who already has a 1:40.07 best in the 200 yard back.
Con grats my brotha, keep swimming fast.
Count Your fly kicks & Time it.
Go for it
This was LCM style. Short underwaters off the walls and steady tempo stroke. Making it look easy.
Missing Javi Acevado
Great swim, but me thinks that C Stewart would have won the 2Back at NCAAs.
We’ll never know now will we??🧐🧐
Bruh WHAT?!😂
…and then DQ a relay…
Tech suit and all by himself! Wouldn’t call that “in practice”.
Ya really think having colleagues swimming beside him would make much of a difference?🧐. Believe me(I’ve seen him swim plenty), he’s really fast in just a Speedo too so munch on those “sour grapes” a bit longer there🍇
Would you call it “in a meet”?
Imagine how fast he’d go on a good day! Supposedly that particular swim felt monotonous.
Shaine is a superstar no doubt. A true practice swim is in a brief. Every time he does such a stud swim, coach post it….what about rest of team? We all know Shaine is real, real good and I don’t need the proof, but the other swimmers probably do!
wut
“If he goes 1:34″…
Definitely kicked past the 15 but would have been 1:38 low at the worst without that. Wow great swim, was not expecting this. He made it look so easy with the stroke rate, and the 3rd 50 was faster than his 3rd 50 at SEC’s.