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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.
Louisville freshman Filip Kosinski continued his progression in his first season of short course yards swimming last Friday, setting a big best time in the men’s 200 backstroke as the Cardinals swept Mizzou on the road.
A Polish native, Kosinski joined Louisville this past fall with a notable international resume that included winning gold at the 2022 World Junior Championships after swimming a preliminary leg on the Polish boys’ 4×100 medley relay.
He also won individual bronze at the 2023 European Junior Championships in the 200 back, and joined the Cardinals owning best times of 54.59/1:58.86 in LCM and 51.68/1:52.90 in the backstroke events.
Despite those accolades, it’s still taken Kosinksi some time to fully adjust to swimming in yards, but he appears to be finding his groove at the perfect time.
The 20-year-old came into the second semester owning best times of 46.77 in the 100 back, set in November at the Ohio State Invitational, and 1:42.74 in the 200 back, set in October in a dual meet against Tennessee (he went 1:42.82 at the OSU Invite).
In the January 3 dual against Mizzou, Kosinski hit a new level in the 200 back, clocking 1:41.58 for a massive best time.
Notably, he took a bit of a different approach to the swim relative to what he did in his two other fast swims, going out more conservatively on the first 50 but closing much stronger on the back half.
Split Comparison
| Kosinski, v. Tennessee | Kosinski, OSU Invite | Kosinski, v. Mizzou |
| 23.91 | 23.72 | 24.28 |
| 49.61 (25.70) | 50.00 (26.28) | 50.24 (25.96) |
| 1:16.00 (26.39) | 1:16.25 (26.25) | 1:15.91 (25.67) |
| 1:42.74 (26.74) | 1:42.82 (26.57) | 1:41.58 (25.67) |
Although Kosinski’s time still only ranks 37th in the NCAA this season, and is nearly a second shy of the 2024 NCAA cutline (1:40.62), it is a positive sign as we head into the NCAA postseason beginning in February.
Kosinski’s time also moves him into 6th all-time in Louisville history, trailing only Grigory Tarasevich (1:38.74), Mitchell Whyte (1:39.46), Nicolas Albiero (1:39.63), Aaron Greene (1:40.94) and Nikolaos Sofianidis (1:41.57).
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He also moved to #8 all-time in school history in the 100 back, setting a best time of 46.33, and went 21.96 leading off the 200 medley relay to break 22 seconds for the first time in the 50 back.
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