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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.
Nevada freshman Scarlett Ferris had a breakout swim at the Women’s Mountain West Championships last week, roaring to victory in the 100 backstroke and breaking a conference record that had been on the books for 10 years.
Ferris, a native of Fife, Scotland, blasted a time of 51.49 in the 100 back final, lowering the Mountain West Record of 51.92 established by Anika Apostalon in 2014.
Coming into her first year with the Pack having never raced the event in yards, Ferris set a benchmark of 53.23 at the Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational in November, and then cracked 53 seconds for the first time in January in a dual meet against UNLV (52.97).
She then produced the three fastest swims of her career within 24 hours at the conference meet, first clocking 52.14 on the lead-off leg of Nevada’s 400 medley relay before going 52.47 in the 100 back heats the next morning and ultimately reeling off the sizzling final swim to break Apostalon’s longstanding conference record.
Split Comparison
| Apostalon, 2014 | Ferris, 2023 Midseason | Ferris, 2024 Conference |
| 25.10 | 25.47 | 24.85 |
| 51.92 (26.82) | 53.23 (27.76) | 51.49 (26.64) |
Ferris also took down the Nevada School Record twice (first doing so on the relay), which stood at 52.69 from Josien Wijkhuijs in 2022.
Apostalon was a member of San Diego State, and another Aztec, senior Alex Roberts, also nearly went under the conference record, clocking 51.95 in the final to finish as the runner-up to Ferris.
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Ferris, who is currently the fastest mid-major swimmer in the NCAA this season in the 100 back, also swam the 200 back (1:59.41) and 50 free (23.04) at the meet, placing 8th in both (her fastest times listed coming from the prelims).
She will certainly earn an NCAA Championship berth with the performance, as last season, 52.36 was the time required to earn an invite.
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