Reece Whitley Surpasses Michael Andrew’s National Age Group Record by Slimmest of Margins

14-year old Reece Whitley has broken Michael Andrew’s 13-14 National Age Group Record in the men’s 100 long course meter breaststroke, swimming a 1:03.82 on Friday at the 2014 Middle Atlantic LC Championships.

Andrew’s old record was 1:03.83, meaning Whitley cleared the mark by .01 seconds.

This is Whitley’s second record of the meet, after he swam a 2:16.48 in the 200 on Wednesday.

Andrew’s swim came at the Austin Grand Prix earlier this year, and before that Anthony Robinson held the record from 1994 at 1:04.74. Now two swimmers have gone under the mark in just 7 months.

Andrew’s splits (old record) – 30.28 – 33.55 = 1:03.83
Whitley’s splits (new record) – 30.46 – 33.36 – 1:03.82

The two swims were split very similarly. Andrew was a little quicker on the front-half, and Whitley on the back, but the splits were close enough to call it a match.

While things will change with junior nationals and nationals in the coming weeks, that puts Whitley 52nd in the country in 2014, among swimmers of every age, in this event.

In This Story

7
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jswimm
9 years ago

what an incredible swim- congratulations! Giving Michael Andrews some much needed competition. The future is yours for the taking

bobo gigi
9 years ago

Wow! .01 s better!
If he did that on purpose, it has been well done!
Mission accomplished.

Fully tapered and with more adversity he can swim 1.02 high and 2.14 something at US juniors in 2 weeks.

Rafael
9 years ago

That time is If I am correct 3rd fastest eerfor a 14 year old (1st is Gyurta 1:02:39) second David Mercado 1;03:46

liquidassets
9 years ago

Wow! I’m looking forward to many great Whitley/Andrew breaststroke battles in the years to come!!

aswimfan
Reply to  liquidassets
9 years ago

My prediction is it would be no contest. Reece Whitley will dominate every single time.

PsychoDad
Reply to  aswimfan
9 years ago

Although Reece swims much better technique, you forget Michael is perpetually tapered so in the middle of season he might catch Reece broken and win.Otherwise as you said, no contest.

wave rider
Reply to  aswimfan
9 years ago

We’ll have to wait and see. I don’t know if it’s fair to say he will dominate M Andrew. Michael set that time in January and he has certainly improved since then. It will be fun to see what happens later this summer. Michael swam 1:03.83 at 14 yr 9mo. Reece swam 1:03.82 14 yr 7months. Reece probably will always be a better 200 breaststroker but the 100 is still dead even at this point. To say Reece Whitley will dominate Michael Andrew in the 100 breast in the future is a bold assumption.

Out of curiosity I looked up Whitley’s times from last year. He actually went faster at state champs than he did later in the summer.… Read more »

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »