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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.
In the midst of her junior season in the NCAA, Mona McSharry and several of her teammates at the University of Tennessee took to the long course pool to tackle the first Pro Swim Series stop of 2023, which was hosted at the team’s home pool in Knoxville.
McSharry had a wildly successful competition, not only sweeping the women’s breaststroke events, but also setting a new Irish Record in the 50-meter event.
The 22-year-old came into the meet having held the National Record for more than five years, first breaking it in 2017 (30.91) before clocking 30.87 in March 2018.
At the 2022 European Championships, McSharry narrowly missed breaking the record in 30.90, ultimately placing seventh in the final.
She neared the record in the prelims with a time of 30.94, and then in the final, McSharry dropped a time of 30.56, demolishing not only the record, but also beating runner-up Miranda Tucker (31.29) by more than seven-tenths of a second.
McSharry now owns the top time in the world this season by more than four-tenths.
2022-2023 LCM Women 50 Breast
Meilutyte
WR 29.16
| 2 | Benedetta Pilato | ITA | 29.60 | 07/29 |
| 3 | Lilly King | USA | 29.72 | 06/28 |
| 4 | Lara Van Niekerk | RSA | 29.75 | 05/21 |
| 5 | Lydia Jacoby | USA | 29.81 | 06/29 |
That swim completed the breaststroke treble for McSharry, who won the 100 breast (1:06.80) and 200 breast (2:26.34) earlier in the meet, nearing her respective Irish Records of 1:06.29 and 2:25.08.
McSharry’s international resume includes winning bronze in the 100 breast at the 2021 Short Course World Championships, and she also has gold medals from the 2017 World Juniors (100 breast) and European Juniors (50 and 100 breast). She also made the 2021 Olympic final in the 100 breast.
Collegiately, the Dublin native placed third in the 200 breast and fourth in the 100 breast at NCAAs as a freshman in 2021, and last season, placed fourth in the 100 breast once again with a personal best time of 57.18.
Based on the form displayed in Knoxville, McSharry will not only be someone to keep an eye on in the NCAA postseason, but later this summer at the World Championships.
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