Carson Foster Discusses Busy December Racing Schedule And His Debut 500 Freestyle

2022 MINNESOTA INVITE

• November 30 – December 3, 2022
• Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, Minneapolis, Minn.
• SCY (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Heat Sheets (when uploaded)
• Live Results
• Results on Meet Mobile: “Minnesota Invite 2022”
• Live Stream ($)
• Races to watch, all the links you need
• 2023 NCAA Qualifying Times

Texas junior Carson Foster is in the middle of a busy month of racing. Foster is part-way through the 2022 Minnesota Invite, from which he will be departing early in order to prepare for the 2022 Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. This is second year in a row where Foster has faced this December double, having gone from the 2021 Minnesota Invite into the 2021 Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi last year. Foster discussed the importance of being there for his Texas teammates while balancing staying focussed on his international team duties:

“I want to be here to support my guys. Their taper meet, and for the freshmen who came down for this meet and really went all in, I want to be there for them and their first taper meet with Texas. But obviously my focus is in two weeks so I’m still trying to prepare for that. But ya, I love coming here and supporting my guys and this is more just a tune up meet for two weeks.”

Foster won three medals at the 2021 Short Course Worlds Championships, taking gold in the 4×200 freestyle, silver in the 200 IM, and bronze in the 400 IM. He finished the 2021-2022 season with another three medals at the long course 2022 World Championships in Budapest, winning 4×200 freestyle gold, as well as silver in both the 200 and 400 IM.

Foster was originally entered in the 200 butterfly, along with the 200 and 400 IM, at the upcomming 2022 Short Course World Championships. Due to an eligibility error, however, Foster is not able to race the event and Zach Harting has stepped in to fill the spot on the roster. Foster discussed that situation here:

“Obviously I want to swim as many events as I can, I want to compete in as many things as I can. But it’s out of my control, it’s out of USA Swimming’s control, I didn’t do the time at the right meet and that’s no one’s fault but my own. I should have done it at Trials if I wanted to swim it at Worlds. So I’m gracious that I even get to swim two events, hopefully a relay for the United States. But ya it’s out of my control so I just get to go and focus on the IMs really hard and rip something good on the relay.”

Foster got off to a strong start at the 2022 Minnesota Invite on Wednesday, contributing to the Texas Longhorns’ pair of medal-winning relays. In the 200 medley relay, Foster delivered a 21.38 backstroke split and was followed by William Chan (23.39), Cole Crane (20.58), and Daniel Krueger (18.81) who touched the wall in a 1:24.16. That was fast enough for a silver medal behind Cal’s 1:22.84, ahead of Arizona’s 1:24.94. In the 800 freestyle relay, Foster posted a 1:30.75 anchor split following Luke Hobson (1:32.73), Peter Larson (1:32.78), and Coby Carrozza (1:32.53) to bring the team to a 6:08.79 for the win.

On night two of the meet, Foster swam to victory in the men’s 500 freestyle where he went head to head with teammate David Johnston. Foster managed to out-touch with Johnston’s 4:10.95 with a 4:10.31, while a third Longhorn, Coby Carrozza came in with a 4:14.90 for third place. The 500 freestyle is a newer event in Foster’s NCAA lineup and his most recent recorded time in the event was a 4:33.47 from back in 2018. Foster discussed the decision to race the 500 at this meet and the calibre of freestylers that he trains with at Texas:

“Our mid-D, upper mid-D group is pretty crazy. So I get in a lot of those battles at practice so I wouldn’t say I train for the 500 but by default just racing those guys in practice and swimming for the 400 IM I kind of end up training for it. So tonight was kind of just, I’m definitely still learning how to swim it and feel comfortable in it. And it’s also seeing how my body reacts to doing two of them in a meet knowing that at the end of the season I’ll obviously have some big races afterwards.”

At the 2022 NCAA Championships, Texas had two representatives in the 500 freestyle final in Luke  Hobson and David Johnston who placed 3rd with a 4:08.42 and 6th with a 4:11.98, respectively. Foster’s time at the Minnesota Invite of 4:10.31 would have been fast enough for a 6th place finish at NCAAs in 2022 behind Brooks Fail’s 4:10.05.

Foster was originally entered in the 500 freestyle and 200 IM on day 2 of the Minnesota Invite and scratched the 200 IM in favour of the 500. Foster finished 6th overall in the 200 IM at the 2022 NCAA Championships and picked up a bronze medal in the 400 IM (3:35.69) and 200 backstroke silver (1:38.77). Regarding the possibility of adding the 500 to his lineup down the road, Foster added the following:

“Tonight was a very good learning experience for me and I’m glad I did the 500, but now we’ve got to talk about the plan for the rest of the season in terms of what my lineups going to be.”

Foster is the top seed heading into the 400 IM final on day three of the Minnesota Invite, having swum a 3:38.95 during prelims. He’ll be joined by fellow Longhorns David Johnston (3:39.36), Jake Foster (3:44.70), and Alec Enyeart (3:50.71) in the final.