Spotlight Shifts from Stanford to Capture Comerford in Indy

2017 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES – INDIANAPOLIS

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While the Stanford women have been rocking the pool all season long, seemingly breaking records at will, there have been plenty of other metaphorical lanes filled with great swimmers that have been a bit lost in the chop this season.

One of the key examples of this has been Louisville sophomore Mallory Comerford, who is somewhat more quietly putting together a sensational season of her own, improving personal bests with some excellent times all season.

Tonight, Comerford competed in the Indianapolis Pro Series meet, mixing in some long course in between the ACC and NCAA championships and dipping below 54 for the first time in the 100 free to take the win in 53.91.  To put that in perspective, last year Dana Vollmer nabbed the 6th spot in the US 4×100 free relay team with a 53.92 in the 100 free final. Comerford did swim the 100 free at Trials, with her 55.14 from prelims making semis, and her 54.61 in semis placing her 12th overall.

By breaking the 54 second mark, Comerford now becomes the 13th-fastest American ever in the event, and eleven of the twelve women ahead of her have represented the Stars and Stripes as Olympians.

Now, it’s way too to start predicting who will be representing Team USA in Tokyo, but Comerford’s time from tonight ranks her 1st in the USA in the 100 free LCM and 4th in the world this season, and it’s certainly not too early to start talking about her earning a spot on this summer’s World Championships team, especially when it comes to the free relays.

Three of the four legs of Team USA’s 4×100 free relay final squad from Rio should be back in action this summer, and those three swimmers —  Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzeil, and Katie Ledecky — are all safe bets to make the relay and most likely swim finals.  The other one-to-three spots are up for grabs, and Comerford should by vying with Amanda Weir and Lia Neal, at least, for those spots.

Comerford is competing in the 200m freeestyle tomorrow.  With a personal best of 1:59.24, a similar drop in time will put her in the running for a spot on the 4×200 free team this summer as well.  Team USA will definitely need to replace Maya DiRado, who retired.  Allison Schmitt hasn’t officially retired, but we’ve yet to see her compete since Rio.  Missy Franklin is reportedly back in training, but at this point has to be considered something of a wild card, so the opportunity certainly appears for someone to make a leap onto this relay.

Hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Comerford came into college with a personal best in the 100 free (SCY) of 50.14, from early 2014 when she was 16 years old.  She wasted no time besting that mark, dropping time all season and peaking with a 48.31 at the 2016 ACC conference championships, before scratching the individual event at NCAA’s to focus on the 400 free relay.

She picked right back up this season, setting a new personal best by almost half a second in October at the SMU Classic, and with her 46.76 at the ACC Championships, she has now managed to knock a whole other second off that mark.  That time makes her the 6th-fastest woman ever in the event, surpassing a certain Natalie Coughlin.  Each of the six women who have been faster than Comerford in that event are Olympians.

Comerford has followed  a similar progression in the 200 free. She started Louisville with a best time of 1:47.60, and has steadily chipped away at that time, placing 2nd in the 200 free last year at NCAA’s and culminating (so far) in a personal-best 1:41.70 in the 200 free at ACC’s two weeks ago.  The only two NCAA swimmers faster than the Louisville Cardinal so far this season?  A pair of Stanford Cardinal, of course, Manuel and Ledecky.  And, similar to the other two events we’ve discussed, six of the seven swimmers who have been faster than her are Olympians.

All that to say, while she is going to face some stiff competition at NCAA’s in her main events in the form of Manuel and Ledecky, Comerford’s times place her on a great trajectory, and it’ll be fun to see how she can fair against those two and the rest of the NCAA next month, the rest of the USA at World Championships Trials, and possibly the rest of the world this summer.

You can read Karl Ortegon’s great piece on Mallory from earlier this season here.