This week on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the Walsh sisters facing off in the 100 Breast and wrap up the 2024-2025 NCAA regular season. (***Originally published in February 10, 2025***).
- 0:00 SwimSwam Breakdown Introduction
- 3:00 Walsh Sisters Breaststroke Dual
- 10:44 Last Couple Weeks of Dual Meets
- 33:09 Fastest Season of All-Time, Thank You
SINK or SWIM
- 43:40 Will the Men’s 200 Fly NCAA record get broken in the Post Season?
- 51:07 Is Gretchen Walsh the Greatest Yards Swimmer of All-Time?
- 1:04:07 Should Chris Guiliano be left off of Texas’ 800 Free Relay at NCAAs?
- 1:11:40 Do the Florida Men have a Shot to Defend their SEC Team Title?
What an incredible finish
When evaluating GOATness it should be noted that there have been some format and schedule changes to NCAAs that change the degree of difficulty of their accomplishments. At Dressel’s best NCAAs he had 14 swims over 3 days. Marchand and Walsh have 10 swims over 4 days. I’m not saying that difference for sure makes Dressel the yards GOAT, but it should at least be taken into account.
I genuinely believe, under the current schedule, Dressel’s 39.90 would have been sub 39.50.
Will the Men’s 200 Fly NCAA record get broken in the Post Season?
When I started watching NCAA swimming Luca was either injured or taking a break, so I don’t know how much of a taper swimmer he is in SCY, but judging by his LCM 200 fly last year, he will probably save his best for when it matters the most, in which case we will probably see both the record and 1:37 being broken. I am not very optimistic currently about Kharun’s 200 fly – he is not much of a taper swimmer in SCY, and in any case seems to be transitioning into more of a sprinter; he should still take second behind Luca, but I don’t… Read more »
When he went 1:39.1 vs Arizona, he was shaking his head after seeing his time. I’ll be curious to see how he does at NCAA’s, but I don’t see him getting by Urlando
4 UVA girls going 56 in 100 breast in the last few years is wild
And douglass is very probably
And that doesn’t include either of the two women they had swimming breaststroke at the Olympics.
Interesting discussion. Especially on dual meets. I think Kyle Sockwell and his efforts re dual meets would have also been worthy to include in the conversation. He has traveled the country like Coleman, trying to inject energy into the genre, ending his rotation this last Saturday at his Alma Mater Arizona State against rival Arizona..
Another of the recent differences that has improved recently is better dual meets in the first semester as well, i.e. ASU/Cal/Stanford meet; ASU/NC State; Texas-Indiana; Indiana-Florida, etc.
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In the 200 Fly discussion, two other points that intensify the Luca / Ilya angle are:
1) They trained together last year going into Luca making US team and Ilya winning Bronze. Coleman, you… Read more »
If Marchard would have swum the 100/200 fly and/or 100/200 backs at conference or NCAAs, he’d probably be #1. He probably would have the NCAA record in the 200 fly if he swam it over the 200 breast. Also, he split 22.9 in the back leg of the 2 IM. His SCY back was elite and easily would have been 43 in yards. His only downside is he swam 2 years and we didn’t get to see those events rested or semi rested.
I think he could have gotten the 100 breast record too – he was 48.7 in the medley relay, and Bl set the record at 49.5 earlier in the session
That’s a great point.
Pretty sure he swam 3 years ( not 2), winning 8 of 9 possible NCAA titles.
Correct, I wrote it wrong.
The commenters on Youtube were having a “Who’s stupider” contest and somehow were tied
Their points were valid.
Saying Swimswam covers the Walsh sisters too much is valid? Saying Swimswam glazes UVA (a program that allows them access) is valid?