Reported by James Sutherland.
MEN’S 200 FREE FINAL
- Junior World: 1:46.40, Ivan Girev (RUS), 2017
Meet: 1:48.64, Caeleb Dressel, 2013
- Alexei Sancov, TERA, 1:47.75
- Julian Hill, GSC, 1:49.29
- Skyler Cook-Weeks, MLA, 1:50.95
Pierce Dietze went out like a madman in the men’s 200 free, flipping at the 50 and 100 walls with splits of 24.43 and 51.78. Top seed coming in Alexei Sancov wasn’t far behind, turning in 52.50, and unlike Dietze, was able to maintain his speed over the back-half to win easily in 1:47.75. That broke Caeleb Dressel‘s 2013 Meet Record of 1:48.64, and is his 2nd fastest performance ever (going 1:47.00 at last year’s European Juniors).
Julian Hill of the Gator Swim Club was the only other guy sub-1:50 in 1:49.29, knocking off his previous best by a second and a half, and Skyler Cook-Weeks had a solid back-half to snag 3rd in a best of 1:50.95. Jake Magahey, the 3rd fastest swimmer ever in 15-16 age group, was 4th in 1:51.04. Dietze ended up fading to 6th.
Jake Mitchell posted a 1:50.91 to win the B-final, putting him half a second outside of the top-10 in the 15-16 age group.
USC appears more and more to be the go-to university program for international transplant swimmers…and what’s not to love in south central? Fight on!
Bruno Blaskovic (Indiana) and Nikola Milajenic (Indiana to USC transfer) from Croatia are roughly the same age, both born in 1998. But in today’s heats, Blaskovic dropped 1.13 from seed time to hit 48.88 while Milajenic added .81 to seed time to hit 51.44. The third Croatian sprinter Mislav Sever also added .37 to seed time to hit 49.78. Blaskovic’s big improvement gets him to the Euro 100 semi.
Trojan men lost some major points with graduating seniors Carter, Candorelli and Tribuntsov along with Robert Glinta likely to remain in Romania and turn pro. Sancov and Swedish distance star Victor Johansson will be immediate “A finals” contributors. But only4 incoming freshman swimmers so it has to be quality. That’s why USC does well with international swimmers because you have to look for impact athletes. I’d like to see a higher quantity of quality swimmers but scholarship limits present a big problem for private schools like USC.
They got the Croatian transfer from Indiana. Did a 48.8 today.
Sorry but that’s incorrect. Bruno is still at Indiana.
Salo’s “Complete conditioning for swimming” is my favorite swimming book.
It’s sort of adorable how much he loves Salo
He obviously didn’t take a lot of recruiting trips if Salo is the dream coach . How many pan pac & world university team members did he put on the team????
Dr. Salo was my best coach and I am happy I finished my swimming with him!
When u do a 1:47 Salo is going to come to you. Looks like a good fit