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 American swimmers, especially those out of colege, the 2016 summer season ended after the Olympic Trials. For Hannah Saiz, it was just getting started.
Saiz, 25, won the U.S. Open title in the 200 butterfly this week, putting up the best swim of her career.
Saiz has a unique background for a number of reasons. She was outside the NCAA’s Division I in college, starring for Division III powerhouse Kenyon. After college, she eschewed retirement and instead turned pro – but didn’t move to any major professional swimming hub or collegiate postgrad program.
Instead, Saiz trains out of the Schroeder YMCA in Brown Deer, Wisconsin. It’s been 3 years since her graduation from Kenyon, and the move to Schroeder has allowed an even bigger explosion in times.
At Olympic Trials, Saiz was 2:10.07 out of prelims, and eventually advanced through semifinals and finals to take 8th overall. But that time didn’t quite knock off her personal best of 2:09.83 set at last summer’s National Championships.
So Saiz returned to the pool for U.S. Open in neighboring Minnesota, with great success. Her 2:09.61 out of prelims stands up as the best time of her lengthy career, and she won the U.S. Open title by over two and a half seconds.
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congrats hannah
Studly.
If you are not an Olympian, it takes a lot of dedication to hang in there and swim after college. If your event is the 200 fly, and you are hitting best times at 25 – well, that takes grande cojones.