Blueseventy Swim of the Week: The Grothe of a Post-grad Distance Star

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Disclaimer: BlueSeventy 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 BlueSeventy Swim 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.

For many, the end of college marks the end of a competitive swimming career. For Zane Grotheit was only a beginning.

The Auburn alum has showed unparalleled growth in his post-grad years, competing for Badger Swim Club and training out of Indiana University. That culminated this week with a pair of American records in the 500 and 1650 freestyles.

While many swimmers, tired of the grind and volume of distance, try to transition into sprints as they age, the 25-year-old Grothe did the opposite. After years in an Auburn program known mostly for sprints, Grothe moved to Indiana to tackle a higher-volume program that is now paying massive dividends.

On Thursday night, Grothe blasted a 4:07.25 to chop 1.2 seconds off the standing American record in the 500 free, winning a national title by three and a half seconds. Just two days later, he was back in the pool to surge to a 14:18.25 in the mile, smashing the American record by four full seconds.

Here’s a look at Grothe’s progression over his collegiate and professional years:

500 free:

Year
Best High School Time 4:24.51 2010
Best College Time 4:14.44 2013
Best Pro Time 4:07.25 2017

1650 free:

Year
Best High School Time 15:11.89 2010
Best College Time 14:37.59 2012
Best Pro Time 14:18.25 2017

And here’s race video of Grothe’s insane 500. (Video for the mile is not yet available)

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ERVINFORTHEWIN
6 years ago

Very talented and cool guy – love his endurance and sprinting at the end .

Grothefan
6 years ago

inZANE last 150

marklewis
6 years ago

Zane was really flying the last 100 or so. He must have hit his taper spot on. He goes into sprint mode and increases his turnover at the end of his races.

He’s got a lot of natural endurance. His age-group coach said that it was hard to tire him out.

Swimfish87
6 years ago

Please someone post a mile video

Swimmy
6 years ago

Anyone know what suit he was wearing?

PNW
Reply to  Swimmy
6 years ago

Tyr

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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