12-Year Old Ethan Dang Crushes NAG Record, Earns Junior Nationals Qualifying Time

In a late candidate for “most impressive age group swim of the year,” 12-year old Ethan Dang has not only annihilated his own 11-12 National Age Group Record in the 200 yard breaststroke, but he has qualified for the 2014 Winter Junior Nationals that begin next Wednesday.

Dang swam a 2:05.56 on Sunday evening at the 2014 Husky Invitational, which is raced at his home pool: the King County Aquatic Center. That’s the same pool where he will now have the opportunity to race at the 2014 Winter Junior National Championships in this 200 breaststroke next week – the time standard for that meet is a 2:05.89.

While Dang’s swim is technically after the entry deadline, USA Swimming allows times swum from December 3rd – December 7th to be used to enter the meet, though it cannot alter a swimmer’s seeding/entry time otherwise.

Dang also has the “Bonus” time standard in the 100 breaststroke, so he will be able to enter that event as well. He is also now eligible to swim both short course time trials throughout the meet and the Sunday long course time trial afterward – offering him an opportunity to chase long course National Age Group Records as well (he ages up before the long course season gets into full swing in the summer).

One achievement as impressive as the other, Dang is now almost four seconds faster than the great Reece Whitley was (2:09.40) in 2012, which was the National Age Group Record in the event up until a month ago. Taking that further, when Whitley did his swim, he was four seconds better than anybody else had ever been. Dang’s time would already rank him 29th on the all-time list of 13-14’s in the event (Whitley has that record in 1:58.39).

So fast was this swim from Dang that his split at 100 yards, 59.80, is faster than any other 11-12 in history has been. It would have been a National Age Group Record of its own if the meet were raced in a different order and he hadn’t already broken that mark on Saturday.

Comparative splits:

Whitley 2012: 29.59/32.88/33.56/33.37 = 2:09.40
Dang (Prelims): 28.95/32.75/33.88/33.44 = 2:09.02
Dang (Finals): 28.12/31.68/33.12/32.64 = 2:05.56

 

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BaldingEagle
9 years ago

From the results page, M 1500m free:

40 1 5 HTUT Ahnt Khaung 2003 MYA 0.63 17:56.04 3:21.73

If you follow the link, last page, 40th place: http://omegatiming.com/File/Download?id=00010E010D00000500FFFFFFFFFFFF02

Not even really that bad a time, IMO.

whoknows
9 years ago

Hmmm… I am thinking FINA has a minimum age for competitors at Olympics if not Worlds

BaldingEagle
9 years ago

According to the Omega timing printouts, there was an 11-year-old who swam at SC Worlds last weekend. Unless I am completely mistaken and horrible at math…

Andrew Majeske
9 years ago

Wow. Now let’s see what Reece Whitley does with the 13-14 breastroke NAG’s this weekend at Tom Dolan!

bobo gigi
Reply to  Andrew Majeske
9 years ago

Yes. He will probably break both 10 and 200 breast records.

Psych sheets of Tom Dolan Invitational here.
http://www.pvswim.org/1415meet/15-30-psych.pdf

Katie Ledecky, Andrew Seliskar, Carsten Vissering, Destin Lasco, Reece Whitley, Cassidy Bayer, Andrew Gemmell, Matthew Hirschberger; Kate Douglass, Chase Travis, Meghan Lynch, James Jones, Townley Haas, Allie Szekely and many others in the water. 😎

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
9 years ago

100

bobo gigi
9 years ago

I’ve found his 100 breast NAG record in video. Lane 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2DKYPvgpUo

bobo gigi
9 years ago

I can’t believe that time! 😯
A NAG record for ages!
Congrats to Mr Dang.
And congrats to Mr Keith for his prediction time.
Almost 4 seconds faster than Reece Whitley!
AMAZING!

pol
9 years ago

USA swimming’s future is very bright. Just stay away from College Swimming and you will be ok.

bobo gigi
Reply to  pol
9 years ago

😆

fatsmcgee
9 years ago

Phenomenal. This level of age group dominance in the 200 breast hasn’t been seen since Daniel Gyurta, and he turned out pretty well!

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, …

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