Campbell McKean Calls Out NCAA Champion Okadome, Sets Eyes on 100 Breast American Record

In a recent YouTube video uploaded by Texas freshman Campbell McKean, he dives into multiple topics surrounding the men’s team victory at the NCAA Championships that he and his Longhorn teammates won just over a week ago, including the finish in the 100 breast. He states that he has his sights set on the long-course 100 breaststroke American Record.

McKean wrapped up his first NCAA Championships with a runner-up finish in the 100 breast in a lifetime best 50.25, a time that also makes him the fastest freshman in history. Still, his performance was overshadowed by Cal’s Yamato Okadome and his NCAA Championship-winning 49.90.

This race, one in which McKean, Okadome, and fellow Longhorn Nate Germonprez were looked at as the three most likely to come away with the title, but it would be the lone Cal Bear at the final touch. McKean reflected on his race, saying he hit his exact stroke count and knew he was having a good race off the first wall after seeing he was ahead of Germonprez.

“I felt good off the start. I could tell I was in the lead because normally my teammate [Germonprez] is ahead of me,” McKean said in his YouTube video. “I feel really bad for [Germonprez], because his arms broke apart off the dive, which is a horrible thing to happen in a final at any meet.”

McKean even says that Germonprez should have won, after he had been 49.80 in the prelims, over a second faster than anyone in the prelims heats, and faster than any performance at finals.

He then addresses the end of the race, showing the underwater angle of the final touch for Okadome, where his legs appear to do a dolphin kick rather than a breaststroke finish, though not explicitly saying that Okadome should have or could have been disqualified. Instead, he asks his audience to react to what they see (at the 4:14 mark in the video).

“I was first going out to the 25, first at the 50, I felt really good. I was first at the 75 and kind of just died at the end.” McKean said. “I’ll put a clip of the finish and the underwater angle. You guys tell me what you guys see… maybe I’ll circle it.”

The rest of the meet was not as productive as the 100 breast for McKean, who finished 9th in the 200 IM and 20th in the 200 breast.

“I feel like for my 200 breast… I feel like I still need to learn how to swim that,” McKean said. “I feel like I can’t stay in rhythm… I think after the 200 breast, which I wasn’t even top 16 and I was seeded 15th, and I didn’t even score in that event, which sucks.”

Still, McKean sees that there is much more to look forward to, closing out his video with a bold goal of getting into the 57-low long-course 100 breaststroke range.

“Now it’s long course season, and we are on the road to 57 100 breast. That’s a big goal. I know I was 58.9 last year and it’s a full second drop, but why not?” McKean added. “Let’s see how close I can get… that American record alert is in my sight.”

McKean made a splash on the domestic breaststroke scene last season, having won both the 50 (26.90) and 100 breaststrokes (58.96) at the USA Swimming National Championships, and securing his spot on the World Championship team for Singapore, where he went on to finish 15th in the 100 breast in 59.74.

He currently ranks as the 6th fastest American breaststroker in history, behind Michael Andrew (58.14), Nic Fink (58.36), Kevin Cordes (58.64), Andrew Wilson (58.74), and Cody Miller (58.87). If he were to break 58 seconds in this race, it would put him in very exclusive company, as only Great Britain’s Adam Peaty, China’s Qin Haiyang, and Dutch talent Arno Kamminga have ever managed to get under the 58-second mark.