The Georgia Invitational is generally a meet held for college swimmers and teams. Nobody told Natalie Coughlin that, though, as she stole the show in Athens on the final day of one of the country’s biggest yards invites.
In Coughlin’s only individual event on the final day of competition, she posted a brilliant 46.84 in the 100 yard free that breaks the American (and pool) Record. That’s the 4th-best time in history, and breaks her own American Record set at Winter Nationals in 2007.
The holder of the top three times in history, Anna Vanderpool-Wallace, didn’t back down one bit at Coughlin’s presence though. She took 2nd in 46.99, which is huge. She didn’t start this meet out all that well in the 50 free, but knowing her personality that fired her up in a huge way for the rest of her meet. She showed exactly that with this swim, which ranks in the all-time top 10 (she now owns six of the top 10 times in history). Vanderpool-Wallace remains the only swimmer to ever go under 47-seconds in a college meet, and she’s done it 5 times. That race might have been one of the biggest head-to-head duels in yards history.
Given the aforementioned 50 free time of 22.08, one wonders if she really could be that rested for this meet. That would imply that, if Vanderpool-Wallace can swim with the same intensity as she did in this final at NCAA’s, we could see her blow away her own NCAA Record.
Megan Romano swam just (note sarcasm) a 47.69, which is an automatic qualifying time and blows away her career-best time. That also would’ve been 2nd at last year’s NCAA’s. Liv Jensen, the 2010 champion, was 3rd here in 48.34.
It’s hard for anyone to stand out in this session surrounded by those performances, but there were other significant performances. In the 200 back, Virginia’s Meredith Cavalier took a win in 1:54.09. That’s not a world-beating time, but for a Virginia team that is looking for NCAA points anywhere they can find them, that’s significant because at this time last year, Cavalier had never been under a 2:03 in the 200 back. She had her big coming out in March, and is now already going again career-best times.
The runner-up in that race was Indiana’s Justine Ress, who is just a freshman, in 1:54.41. She is following in the family footsteps with that three second career-best (she is the younger sister of last year’s men’s NCAA runner-up Eric).
Cal’s Caitlin Leverenz won the 200 breaststroke in 2:07.06, which matches the mark set by Texas A&M’s Breeja Larson two weeks ago at the Tennessee Invitational. That sets up a great battle (with the defending champion Haley Spencer not to be counted out – we’ve only seen a 2:14 from her this season in one race) at NCAA’s to match the excitement of last year’s finish. With a dead heat right now, one wonders if Larson doesn’t have an advantage on the fact that her mid-season taper was two weeks earlier.
Georgia’s Melanie Margalis also secured her spot at NCAA’s with a 2:09.06 for 2nd.
What was much more surprising than that swim was Leverenz coming right back and winning the 200 fly in 1:53.56. That’s 2nd in the country behind only Katinka Hosszu’s swim at the Texas Invite. Aside from the breaststrokes, the butterfly is her biggest strength in the IM’s. If she hopes to knock off Hosszu in either IM at NCAA’s, she will have to continue the strong butterfly skills she showed here.
Wendy Trott won the 1650 earlier in the day in 15:44 (recap here).
Cal freshman Tyler Messerschmidt won the men’s 100 freestyle in 43.39, which is the second-best freshman time in the country this year (behind David Nolan). Cal graduated huge portions of their sprint group, but they’ve got some young freestylers who are stepping up to the plate to take over for the likes of Nathan Adrian. He led Cal to touch first in the 400 free relay, though they were DQ’ed.
In the men’s 200 breaststroke, Cal continued to prove very deep with a 1:55.24 from Trevor Hoyt and a 1:56.18 from Nolan Koon.
Cal earned another 1-2 finish in the men’s 200 fly. Tom Shields had the top seed in the morning of the 200 back, but scratched that final to focus on the 200 fly. That decision paid off by way of a 1:43.09, which is the best time in the country this year.
Will Hamilton took 2nd in 1:45.82, which is his best time as a Cal Golden Bear.
Great race for Justine Ress, the french woman who is also a freshman. Bad luck for her in the next years with all backstroke’s talents who will swim in NCAA. But she has a big progression. Caitlin Leverenz must be a little tired after 4 days of high competition in long course and after in yards. She has posted very fast times.
Good time for Natalie Coughlin but not fantastic time. The american records in yards for most of them are not very high compared to long course. Your top swimmers don’t swim very often rested in yards. 46.84 is very far of the top level in the world. It converts to 52.28 in short course in meters. I think only Missy Franklin in USA and if she’s focus only on the 100 free (which isn’t the case) has the level to be in the mix for a gold medal at the next olympic games. America hasn’t pure sprint specialists to swim under 53 seconds in 2012. But you have a great group of young girls for the future with Simone Manuel,… Read more »
I’m sure Wendy wish she went that minor typo, 14:44…
Natalie is the one woman medley relay! Good swims!