Coleman Stewart Swims 49.1 in 100 Free Time Trial at Nationals

USA Swimming National Championships – Time Trials

• July 25th-29th, 2018
• Meet Mobile search: “Time Trials -2018 Phillips 66 National Champs,” or to shortcut, “Irvine”

In between the formal action at the USA Swimming National Championships, and wedged around the swim-offs (there was a double swim-off in the women’s 100 free: they tied in prelims and then tied in their first swim-off), USA Swimming is conducting time trial races for swimmers to shoot for best times in events they haven’t qualified for the meet in, often times to take a stab in a swim on a day where they otherwise don’t have any races.

While the times won’t formally count for the myriad of meets that are using Nationals for selection, some of the results are still interesting.

The highlight of Wednesday’s session was a 49.15 in the 100 free by NC State rising junior Coleman Stewart. His previous best time was a 50.72, that he swam just a few weeks ago on July 7th, and he didn’t actually have a Nationals qualifying time in the event.

His time would have ranked him 17th in prelims and at the top of the C-final (which, in-and-of-itself is unprecedented – Stewart’s time would’ve almost A-finaled last year). He was one of two swimmers under 50 seconds in the time trial, with the other being Grant House in 49.85 (his first time faster than 50 seconds).

Other Wednesday Time Trial Highlights (+ Swim-Off Results):

• Texas rising senior Sam Stewart knocked two-and-a-half seconds from his lifetime best in the 200 fly, finishing in 1:59.95.
• Jordan Stout from the University of Georgia led the women’s 100 free time trials in 56.60 – which is her best time by a tenth-of-a-second.
• Virginia undergrad Matthew Otto led the men’s 100 breaststroke time trial in 1:03.13. That took .37 seconds off his previous best time, and was under the Nationals qualifying time (no, he can’t enter the regular 100 breaststroke later in the meet). Cameron Karkoska from LSU was 2nd in 1:03.43.
• Austin Haney from the University of Kentucky swam 2:05.95 in the men’s 200 IM. That’s his lifetime best by 7-tenths of a second, and his season best by almost 5 seconds.
• In the women’s 100 free swim-off, Maxine Parker and Miranda Heckman tied again, in 55.82 (much faster than the 56.2 they swam in prelims). This is the 2nd-straight year that Nationals has had a double swimoff (men’s 50 breast last year). In the 2nd swim-off, just a few minutes after the first, Heckman won in 57.58 to Parker’s 58.52. Heckman is a much better distance swimmer (as an example: her best in the 200 free is 2:00.7, Parker’s is 2:06.9), so she had a big advantage on the third swim. That gets Heckman into the 18 & under “D Final”.
• Taylor Pike won the women’s 200 fly swim-off in 2:10.07, beating out Lillie Nordmann (2:10.72). That gets Pike into the “A” final, and is a couple-of-tenths better than she was in the preliminary round.