Video produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Jared Anderson.
200 IM – FINALS
NCAA – 1:40.07 – David Nolan, Stanford – 2015Championship – 1:40.49 – Bradley Alley, Florida – 2009American – 1:40.07 – David Nolan – 2015US Open – 1:40.07 – David Nolan – 2015- 2014 Champion – Marcin Cieslak, Florida – 1:40.58
One of the most-anticipated events of the night, the 200 IM did not disappoint. Stanford senior Dave Nolan cranked out the finest 200 IM ever swum. The versatile Cardinal, whom we ranked as the most valuable swimmer to his team in all of college swimming, absolutely crushed his own American record, going 1:39.38 for the win. That’s the first time anyone has broken 1:40 in the event in history – for reference, Olympic hero Michael Phelps swam the race earlier this month and was just 1:40.84.
Nolan went after the race hard, tying Texas sophomore Will Licon for the fastest fly split at 21.67. But the Cardinal took over the lead in his specialty, backstroke, splitting 24.32. From there, it was all Nolan as the IMer held his lead on breast (29.21) and then extended his lead with a 24.18 on free, the best closing leg of the field.
For his part, Licon nearly went under the old American record as well. His 1:40.09 will stand as the third-fastest 200 IM history behind Nolan’s two swims (Nolan’s old record was 1:40.07). Licon had the field’s best breaststroke split at 28.75.
Cal’s Josh Prenot took third, finishing way farther behind the leaders than a 1:41.79 has ever been. Prenot boasted one of the field’s best breaststroke splits at 29.18.
Stanford made it a big event, also taking 4th with Tom Kremer‘s 1:42.43. He just touched out Cal’s star backstroker Ryan Murphy, who was 1:42.49, oustplitting everyone but Nolan with a 24.87 on the backstroke.
Michigan’s butterfly star Dylan Bosch was sixth, going 1:42.62 – he’ll try to defend his 200 fly title on Saturday for the Wolverines.
Also in the A final were Florida’s Eduardo Solaeche (1:42.96) and Georgia freshmanGunnar Bentz (1:43.00).
Texas won its third heat out of 6 so far on the night as freshman Joseph Schooling went 1:42.86 to power away with the B final.
His first 100 was faster than the first 100 of most of the kids in the B final of the 200 free…
Where can I find a video of the race?
yes please!
Here is the funny thing: you could argue this event was actually slower than last year. Took a slower time to make the A final (1:42.2), and this year Nolan and Licon were the only two under 1:42 in the final. Last year there were five.
I could be wrong, but isn’t Licon’s swim the 4th fastest in history behind Nolan’s two swims and Lochte’s 1:40.08?
that’s correct