Madisyn Cox Goes 4:01,Takes Down Kathleen Hershey’s 2009 400 IM

2017 BIG 12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, February 22 – Saturday, February 25
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center- University of Texas
• Prelims 10 AM/ Finals 6 PM (Central Time)
• Defending Champs: Texas (20x) (results)
• Championship Central
• Live Results

While the Texas men get a lot of attention, due in no small part to winning two consecutive NCAA championships, the Longhorn women have had their share of success recently as well.  Tonight at the Big 12 Championships, just a few minutes after Joseph Schooling dropped the 3rd-fastest 100 yard fly of all-time, Madisyn Cox went 4:01.15 in the 400 IM.

That time makes her the 10th fastest USA swimmer ever in the event, but also took down the conference record that was previously held by former Longhorn and Olympian Kathleen Hersey.  That conference record had stood at 4:01.91, and Hersey set it back in 2009, at the height of the supersuit era.

What’s also notable about Cox’s swim tonight is that it would have placed her 2nd at last year’s NCAA’s championship, behind only Stanford Ella Eastin.  Coming into today, only Eastin and fellow Stanford swimmer Katie Ledecky have been under 4:01 this season.  It’s not clear yet whether Ledecky will swim the 400 IM at NCAA’s, or if she will drop it in favor of the 200 free, in which she won gold in Rio in the long course version of the event.

Update: Ledecky just broke the American Record in the 400 IM, to the tune of a 4:57.68.   It’s getting a bit harder to see her dropping this at NCAA’s next month.

Regardless, Cox’s time tonight was a lifetime best by over two seconds, and she can replicate her time next month, she should still be in the mix for a medal in this event.