2019 W. NCAAs: Beata Nelson Downs NCAA Record in Nail-Biter 200 Back

2019 WOMEN’S DIVISION I NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Wisconsin junior Beata Nelson, fresh off destroying the 100 back NCAA and American records Friday night, broke the 200 back NCAA record in finals Saturday night after going 1:48.74 in prelims.

Nelson, who split 25.24/27.20/27.44/27.36, went stroke-for-stroke with Stanford freshman Taylor Ruck (25.25/26.89/27.51/27.94), who led at the 100-mark. Bolstered by huge underwaters at the 150 and 175, Nelson pulled ahead to win in 1:47.24. Ruck was second in 1:47.59.  Nelson is in the midst of a stellar meet and upset Ella Eastin in the 200 IM Thursday night; she went 1:50.79 for the No. 2 swim on history.

High schooler Regan Smith still holds the American record, set 12 days ago at 1:47.16. Nelson is now the No. 2 performer in history, and Ruck the No. 4. Kathleen Baker held the previous NCAA record at 1:47.30.

Splits comparison:

Regan Smith AR
Beata Nelson NCAA record
25.05 25.24
26.49 27.2
27.59 27.44
28.03 27.36
1:47.16 1:47.24

Top 10 Performers of All Time: SCY 200 Back

Place Swimmer Time
1 Regan Smith 1:47.16
2 Beata Nelson 1:47.24
3 Kathleen Baker 1:47.30
4 Taylor Ruck 1:47.59
5 Elizabeth Pelton 1:47.84
6 Missy Franklin 1:47.91
7 Gemma Spofforth 1:48.34
8 Ella Eastin 1:48.53
9 Asia Seidt 1:48.65
10 Alexia Zevnik 1:49.09

Top 10 Performances of All Time: SCY 200 Back

Place Swimmer Time
1 Regan Smith 1:47.16
2 Beata Nelson 1:47.24
3 Kathleen Baker 1:47.30
4 Taylor Ruck 1:47.59
5 Elizabeth Pelton 1:47.84
6 Missy Franklin 1:47.91
7 Kathleen Baker 1:48.27
8 Regan Smith 1:48.30
9 Kathleen Baker 1:48.33
10 Gemma Spofforth 1:48.34

In This Story

3
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

3 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
JimSwim22
5 years ago

Kind of surprising to see top 6 performances be 6 different swimmers. I wonder if that is true of any other event?

William Hartman
5 years ago

. .,:

Mimi
5 years ago

Great meet for Beata!

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

Read More »