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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.
La Salle junior Felix Jedbratt had a breakthrough performance at last week’s Atlantic 10 Championships, putting him in position to compete at the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career.
When Jedbratt joined the Explorers from Sweden in the fall of 2022, the school record in the men’s 100 fly stood at 47.92 from Cameron Fadley in 2015.
In Jedbratt’s freshman year, Zack Wolbert lowered the La Salle Record to 47.89 at the 2023 A-10 Championships, with Jedbratt registering a season-best of 49.00. Last season as a sophomore, Jedbratt grabbed hold of the record, clocking 46.67 at the conference meet.
Now, in his junior year, Jedbratt has taken another massive step forward, first bringing his school record down to 45.40 in November before breaking through the 45-second barrier at the A-10 Championships.
Jedbratt won the conference title in dominant fashion, clocking 44.97 to break the A-10 Championship Record and shatter his own school record by nearly half a second.
Additionally, he becomes just the third man in mid-major history to go sub-45, joining Harvard’s Umitcan Gures (44.63) and George Washington’s Djurdje Matic (44.80), and goes well under the time required to earn an NCAA invite last season, 45.37, meaning he’s all but secured a spot at the 2025 NCAA Championships.
The 44.97 clocking is also quicker than what it took to earn a second swim at the 2024 NCAA Championships (44.99 was 16th in the prelims).
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Jedbratt also won gold in the men’s 50 free, setting a new A-10 and La Salle Record of 19.20, and he was the runner-up in the 100 free, clocking 43.16 after finishing in the same position last season in a PB of 42.95.
With the Big 12, Big Ten and Ivy League Championships still ongoing, Jedbratt currently ranks 18th in the NCAA this season in the 100 fly.
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Impressive improvement the last 3 years to go from a 49.0 to a 44.9 in the 100 fly.