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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.
Whitman College junior Tanner Filion had an exceptional performance in more ways than one at the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships last week, roaring to the national title in the men’s 200 backstroke in a time of 1:41.49.
The swim for Filion immediately stands out as it not only broke, but smashed, the D3 record in the event by nearly two seconds.
Coming into the competition, the record stood at 1:43.49, set by Kenyon’s Harrison Curley in 2015, and in the event’s preliminaries, Kenyon sophomore Yurii Kosian lowered that mark down to 1:43.43.
Filion was not far off of the record either, clocking a massive best time of 1:43.60, and then dropped that scintillating 1:41.49 in the final to put himself two full seconds under the existing record coming into the day. Kosian also went under the previous record to place second in 1:42.90.
All-Time NCAA Division III Performers, Men’s 200 Back
- Tanner Filion (Whitman), 1:41.49 – 2022
- Yurii Kosian (Kenyon), 1:42.90 – 2022
- Harrison Curley (Kenyon), 1:43.49 – 2015
- Benjamin Lin (Williams), 1:44.00 – 2017
- Byrne Litschgi (Chicago), 1:44.04 – 2019
But beyond the accolades Filion earned in the record books, his performance in Indianapolis also showed an incredible improvement from a personal perspective.
The 21-year-old dropped a total of seven seconds over the course of the season, having come in with a PB of 1:48.51 set at the 2020 Northwest Conference Championships. At NCAAs, he dropped more than three seconds, having set a best time of 1:44.57 at the 2022 NWCs one month earlier. And prior to that meet? His lifetime best was 1:47.97, set at the Logger Invitational in December.
Filion’s 200 Back Progression, 2021-22 Season
- 1:48.51 – 2020 NWC Championships (PB coming into season)
- 1:47.97 – 2021 Logger Invitational
- 1:47.06 – 2022 NWC Championships (prelims)
- 1:44.57 – 2022 NWC Championships (finals)
- 1:43.60 – 2022 NCAA Division III Championships (prelims)
- 1:41.49 – 2022 NCAA Division III Championships (finals)
Looking at the results from the NCAA Division II Championships, Filion’s time would’ve placed second in the final, just 13 one-hundredths shy of winner Mikita Tsmyh (a two-time Belarusian Olympian).
Filion would also rank as the third-fastest D2 swimmer ever, trailing only Matthew Austin (1:40.74) and Tsmyh.
RECAP & RESULTS: Tanner Filion Claims 200 Backstroke National Title, Shatters @NCAADiii Record. #GoWhitman @whitmancollege @northwestconf https://t.co/oyBcdpU4N6
— Whitman Athletics (@WhitmanSports) March 20, 2022
Going even further, Filion’s 200 back time was just 57 one-hundredths shy of what it took to earn an invite to the Division I NCAA Championships this season.
If we look at other winning times from D3, that’s the closest to a D1 invite on the men’s side (ranking them on a per 100-yard basis), and the second overall. It only trails the women’s 100 breaststroke, where MIT junior Edenna Chen (59.79) was actually under the invite time for women’s D1 NCAAs (59.87).
The only other men’s event that was within a half-second per 100 yards of the D1 invite time was the 50 free (0.44), while the average (excluding Filion’s swim) was over a second per 100.
Additionally, Filion’s victory made him just the second the national champion from Whitman in any sport, joining fellow swimmer Karl Mering, who won the men’s 100 fly in 2014.
Filion also finished second in the 100 back (46.89) and seventh in the 200 free (1:37.99, 1:37.63 in prelims) to hit lifetime bests in both of those races as well.
His best times coming into the season in those events? 49.57 in the 100 back and 1:41.93 in the 200 free. Truly a breakout season.
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One step further…Tanner is also one of the absolute nicest humans on this planet. And while I do not wish to take away from the well deserved light shining on Mr. Filion, there is no mention of his and Karl’s coach at Whitman. Jenn Blomme has done an incredible job of pushing the correct buttons for both these 2 national champions, but also scores of other Whitman swimmers. Congratulations Tanner and Coach Jenn!!
“Going even further, Filion’s 200 back time was just 57 one-hundredths shy of what it took to earn an invite to the Division I NCAA Championships this season.”
I know Andrew Wilson would have done it, but have any other men in D3 recently gone a time that would be invited to D1 NCAAs? Would not be surprised if he dropped time and did it next year.