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.
A freshman led the nation last week in the 500 and 1650 free last week. Do you know who he is?
Not many do. Zach Yeadon has been consistently crushing swims for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, to little accolades. Yet. But if he keeps up this kind of swimming at the NCAA Championships, expect that to change in a hurry.
Yeadon put up the fastest times of any swimmer in the nation last weekend in both the 500 (4:22.85) and 1650 frees (15:02.06) last weekend. Those aren’t earth-shattering times, but it’s not a time of year when anybody is swimming lights-out. Yeadon outranked All-American Fynn Minuth, NCAA runner-up Akaram Mahmoud and NCAA champ Townley Haas in that 500 free, among plenty others.
Notre Dame has been an under-the-radar, upset-minded team all year. Despite going unranked in most of our power rankings so far, the Irish have beaten Louisville, Purdue and Florida State this year on the men’s side, and this week topped Ohio State and Wisconsin at their home invite.
Yeadon has been a big part of that. He currently ranks 7th in the nation this season in the mile (14:47.18) and in the 500 (4:14.93), putting up lifetime-bests in all three of his freestyle races, including a monster drop in the 500. Here’s a look at Yeadon’s top times pre-college vs his mid-season bests:
| High School | Freshman Year – Midseason | |
| 500 free | 4:19.13 | 4:14.93 |
| 1650 free | 14:49.90 | 14:47.18 |
| 200 free | 1:37.86 | 1:36.51 |
With even a moderate time drop at taper, Yeadon has a shot to score in both the 500 and 1650, which would help Notre Dame aim to better its 25th-place team finish from a year ago.
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Congrats to Zach for an outstanding freshman season! However, he wasn’t the leading NCAA swimmer last weekend – that would be Khader Baqlah in 4:22.20 in the Tennessee-Florida dual meet (according to the USA Swims Database).
Best of luck to Zach at the ACC Championships and then NCAAs!