CUBU swimmer Cassidy Bayer continues to roll through the National Age Group Record books, and last night in Buffalo really dropped some jaws. She won the women’s 200 fly at the Eastern Zone Super Sectionals meet in an amazing 2:15.02.
She easily holds the 100 fly National Age Group Record by now, and is tied with Dana Vollmer in the 50 fly, but this 200 was her first record-breaking swim, and by far her best.
First, in late June, she took Courtney Kalisz’s old record from 2:19.32 to 2:18.61. Then, at the Potomac Valley LSC Senior Championships, she knocked that down to a 2:17.65. She skipped the race at her last meet, the Junior Olympics, but is now back at it, with more than four-seconds off of the old record in about 6 weeks.
Her splits show both that she’s really hitting her taper perfectly, and that she’s maturing in her pacing. She controlled the front-half of her race a little bit better than she did in her previous record-breaking swim, but really uncorked on the second 100 meters. Comparative splits are below:
| Bayer (New Splits) | 30.83 | 34.47 | 35.16 | 34.56 |
| Bayer (Old Splits) | 30.00 | 34.76 | 36.39 | 36.50 |
For what it’s worth, despite only being 12 years old, there’s only three 13-14’s who have been faster than Bayer this season. Bayer is now only half-a-second from Ryan Murphy’s 11-12 boys record; that’s not uncommon in 10 & unders, but extremely rare in the older age groups.
Bayer already broke the 100 fly record earlier in this meet.
Full results available here.
2.15.02! It’s amazing!
We can say the future looks bright for women’s american swimming. You have a backstroker for the next 10 years with Missy Franklin and there are plenty of other young swimmers behind. On breaststroke you have Allie Szekely who is a phenom. On butterfly you have Cassidy Bayer. And on freestyle you have Lia Neal, Simone Manuel and Kristen Vredeveld in the shortest races and Katie Ledecky and Rebecca Mann in the longest races.