The 6th-fastest American breaststroker of all-time. That’s who.
A lot of the pre-meet buzz surrounding the mens 100 breast (Whitley vs. Andrew) at U.S. Nationals overlooked a key player. Surprisingly, new American face turned a lot of heads this morning. Andrew Wilson clocked the only sub-1:00 of the morning, swimming a 59.68 to top the heats.
Wilson, a senior-to-be at Emory, has been training with the Texas Longhorns this summer. That gave him a chance to train with Austin Temple and 200 Breast NCAA Champion Will Licon.
It seems to have paid off well, as he dropped 2 seconds in the 100 breast prelims this morning to top the field at U.S. Nationals. He came to the meet with a 1:01.87, but tore through that, splitting 27.99/31.69.
That time makes him the 6th fastest American of all time, right between Cody Miller (59.51) and Kevin Cordes (59.70). Miller and Cordes are both in Kazan representing the U.S. at the FINA World Championships.
It also would have placed him in the top 8 at Worlds. It took a 59.75 to qualify for the final, and 59.68 would’ve finished 7th. Miller, the fastest of the Americans at the meet, just missed finals after landing 9th at 59.86.
Wilson’s improvement isn’t completely unexpected. His performance during the 2014-15 NCAA season was a sign that he’d be translating to fast long course swims. At the NCAA Division 3 Championships, he set a new NCAA record in the 100 breast at 51.72. He followed that up with another record in the 200 breast, swimming a 1:52.97. While NCAA Division III times are generally slower than those in Division I, his 100 time would’ve put him in the A-Final of Division I as well.
Wilson also has some pedigree – his older sister Jenny Wilson was an NCAA Division I All-American breaststroker at Northwestern. She recently came out of retirement and is qualified to swim at this week’s U.S. National Championships as well.
The kid came out of prep school — no year-round club swimming to hone his skills as an age grouper — and has apparently gone from barely a minute short course to make the Emory team to under a minute long course to win Nationals. A D3 swimmer who is said just to love the sport, work like an animal, and, by the comments from his Emory teammates, to be a wonderful example of student, athlete and teammate. In interviews, he comes across as articulate, unassuming, focused on the swimming and preparing for the next race — not on reliving the last race or where his time “woulda coulda shoulda” put him against others at Worlds Meh, fine to speculate… Read more »
Hey, SW1MM3R:
I guess you just didn’t want to mention that US News and World Report ranks Emory 21 and UT Austin 53rd?
And GAASH? Why the LOL? Why downplay Emory’s academic excellence?
They’re both great schools….see you at the pool.
Did you see how big he’s gotten? I heard he’s on that zero calorie diet.
It would be so sad to see someone choose a different school just for a swimming career. He might be considering a professional career in swimming, but abandoning your teammates for a bigger program would be a selfish move. No athlete who is performing for the right reasons would leave their team in their final year. ESPECIALLY giving up a degree at Emory which is worth much, much more than a pro swimming career.
Just for the record, we don’t see Andrew’s departure as a selfish move at all. As his teammates, we will stand behind him 100%, no matter if that means pushing himself as a swimmer or as a student. He’s chosen swimming for now, and we love watching him excel. We have no doubt that when he returns to his education he will excel at that as well.
– another eagle
If he’s going to redshirt, he ought to consider going to Singapore to train with Sergio Lopez and Cordes for a year.
The Reason Andrew Wilson has been swimming so well is a combination of a lot of factors…commitment and authentic love for the sport, an Out Of Control work ethic, and a talent for surrounding himself with talented coaches. He is headed in the Same Direction he has been throughout his Emory career, only now on a faster trajectory. He isn’t Running Away from anything and he certainly isn’t going to go down Without a Fight. Mad props and many congratulations to Mr. Wilson, it is well deserved.
By the way, It that is picture of him, that is not Eddie’s style of breaststroke. I would love to see him swim now after “Summer of Eddie.” Eddie teaches staying high and looking straight. Eyes never look down until the chin touches the water, and at that point arms are stretched forward. I bet changes were made there this summer.
That’s 100% a picture of him; it has shown up in a bunch of D3 articles about him.
Great swim by Wilson. After his 51.7 at D3s I was very excited to see him swim this fast this summer.
I think we need to give more credit to the Emory staff than the Texas staff. Clearly his training there lead to amazing results. It’s a discredit to just assume that he should train with Texas leading up to Rio. He’s had amazing improvements at Emory.
Why would he change from a program that has clearly proved that it works, swimming with teammates that he knows? We always assume that the bigger programs must be better, but I would argue that if a swimmer is having great success at home leading up to the olympics, there’s no reason… Read more »
Seriously, people are acting like he just broke out but his SCY times from DIII NCAAs last year are comparable to what he just went in LCM. I wouldn’t fault him for making the change, but the Emory program obviously does a great job in improving swimmers.
His previous LCM time was from a January meet, which probably wasn’t a shaved and tapered performance.