Swim of the Week is brought to you by arena, a SwimSwam partner.
Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
There’s been no shortage of standout performances this week as conference championship meets in the NCAA have ramped up, with plenty of highlights coming out of the ACC and SEC Championships specifically.
One swim that’s flown a little bit under the radar was the 200 freestyle performance of Brooklyn Douthwright, one of many Tennessee freshmen that have been swimming lights out at SECs over the last few days.
A native of Riverview, New Brunswick in Canada, Douthwright entered the season having never raced in the yards pool, and came into her first conference championships with a 200 free PB of 1:46.24 set at the Tennessee Invitational back in November.
That time only ranked her seventh for the season on the stacked Tennessee women’s roster, leaving her off of the Vols’ 800 free relay lineup on Tuesday night.
But in the individual 200 free, the 18-year-old came to play, dropping her best time by well over two seconds in 1:43.97 to qualify third into the final.
At night, Douthwright went toe-to-toe with defending champion Riley Gaines of Kentucky, falling just off the pace on the last 50 to ultimately place second in 1:43.45.
Douthwright’s time marked another PB by a half-second, and is faster than three of the four legs on Tennessee’s winning 800 free relay from Day 1. The only faster time came from another freshman, German native Julia Mrozinski, who led the team off in 1:43.21.
Mrozinski is a relatively old freshman, however, having turned 22 on Wednesday, while Douthwright is still only 18. In fact, Douthwright’s swim would rank 15th all-time in the girls’ 17-18 age group if she was an American, which, if nothing else, shows how strong of a swim it really was.
Follow arena USA on Instagram here.
About arena
arena has revolutionized the world of aquatic sport through insightful collaboration with world class athletes and the development of cutting edge competitive swimwear since 1973. Today, this spirit of collaboration and innovation lives on through a continuous evolution of advanced materials and Italian design that improves the performance, style and expression of all those who chose arena. From leading the lanes to living in style, arena is dedicated to providing all swimmers with the tools they need to express themselves, feel confident, win and achieve more. Because in arena, you can.
Looking forward to seeing what she can do at trials 🧡🇨🇦!
👏👏👏 Hopefully she’s planning on swimming at Canadian Trials – she if she can push for a 4×200 relay berth.