2022 ST TXLA 11 & Over End of School Splash
- May 20-22, 2022
- Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
- Long Course Meters (50 meters), timed finals
- Meet Results
Olympic Trials finalist and two-time USA Swimming National Team member Dakota Luther swam a 2:07.85 in her signature 200 meter fly event over the weekend at a local age group meet.
That time is faster than the 2:07.93 that qualified Regan Smith into the second spot at the US World Championship Trials in April, and is within a tenth of her own best time of 2:07.76.
Splits: 1:01.81/1:06.03 = 2:07.85
Luther didn’t race at the World Championship Trials in April. Shesays that the quick turnaround from NCAAs to World Championship Trials of about a month, faster than any recent year, along with academic commitments made it hard for her to compete at those Trials.
“I had a lot going on with school at that time and had a lot of homework to do,” Luther said. “I really wanted to get back to training as well. It was a hard turnaround for me to attempt after NCAAs and the college season.”
Luther returned to Austin on May 15 after announcing that she was planning to transfer from Georgia to the University of Texas for her 5th year of collegiate eligibility. She has since signed a National Letter of Intent, confirming her plan to race for the Longhorns next season.
University of Texas compliance, however, has not yet cleared her to train with the Longhorns’ varsity team, so meanwhile she has been training with her mom’s Masters team at Longhorn Aquatics.
Luther’s mom isn’t a regular swim mom though: she is three-time Olympic medalist Whitney Hedgepeth, who won gold in the 400 medley relay and silver in both backstroke races at the 1996 Olympic Games.
Hedgepeth, who started her coaching career at the University of Florida before also transferring to Texas, is the head coach of Longhorn Aquatics Masters, which has 199 registered swimmers and trains out of the University of Texas pool. She was named the 2013 US Masters Swimming Coach of the Year, and the team is home to a number of National and World Record setting swimmers.
Luther now ranks #8 in the world this season in the 200 fly in long course meters.
The 22-year old finished 4th at last year’s NCAA Championships last season in the 200 fly. Next year’s Longhorn butterfly group will include four of the top eight finishers from that race.
Luther was the 2020 and 2021 SEC Champion in the 200 fly and placed 6th in the event at last summer’s US Olympic Trials with a time of 2:09.40. She was a member of the American team for the World University Games in 2019, winning gold medals in the 200 fly and 400 medley relay and a silver medal in the 100 fly.
I’ve known some great Masters swimmers in my day. BJ Johnson used to swim with the Stanford masters team dropped almost 10 seconds in his 200 Breast to eventually qualify for the World Championship team in 2013.
Around that time, Clark Burckle had just represented Team USA in the Olympics in that event and was also swimming with the Masters team. They were rarely at the same practice together and would pretend like they were just chill about competing against each other, but I do remember a set of fast 50s where they slowly ramped their way down to holding :30s breastroke against each other (long course).
I once swam with Whitney’s masters group while visiting Austin. She’s a great coach!
Texas women scary in the 200 fly
One of the things I enjoy about swimming, the somewhat randomness of great swims. Congrats Dakota!
Me too. I’ll look through a random meet on swim swam to find that one standout swim.
As an older swimmer, my best swims were always in practice.
Joe schooling can attest to that.
Click bait headlines. Article says she got home on May 15 and meet started May 20th so “training with Masters” a bit of a stretch for 5 days!!!! Can she go 2:05 at end of summer after training for 3 months with mom and Masters?
Mom knows how to taper her. 🙂
Along with finals and graduation. Let’s see what she has at the end of summer when mom trains and completely tapers her! 🤷♂️ It should be 2:05!
I mean its not that much of a click bait. “Dakota Luther Swims 2:07 200 fly while training with her moms master team” In the article it says Dakota swims with the Masters team that her mom coaches and goes 2:07 in the 200 fly at the age group meet.
We still hit 5k+ a practice that whole week leading up to that meet LCM and SCY.