Eastin Explodes For 4:01.0 in 400 IM On Night 2 Of Art Adamson Invite

Stanford freshman Ella Eastin rocked the Art Adamson Invite’s second day, putting up a 400 IM time that would have won last year’s NCAA title by a wide margin.

Full results

Eastin was quick in the 200 IM on day 1, but her 400 IM instantly becomes the new highlight of the meet so far. She was 4:01.04, which is 1.4 seconds faster than the graduated Sarah Henry went in winning last year’s national title.

Eastin pretty well crushed every leg of this race. She led the field with a 54.8 on fly, and by the time she rattled off a 1:00.2 on backstroke, she had accumulated a lead of about three seconds on her closest challenger, Texas A&M’s Bethany Galat. Eastin was 1:08.7 on breast and 57.1 closing things down on freestyle – comparing those results to last year’s NCAAs, Eastin would have a significant advantage over every returning swimmer in every stroke but freestyle, where Georgia’s Hali Flickinger would have challenged.

That wasn’t the only big news for Stanford. The Cardinal 200 medley relay also popped off a huge swim of 1:35.92, a nation-leading time that would have been 3rd at last year’s NCAAs. It was defending breaststroke champ Sarah Haase who nabbed the lead for Stanford, splitting 26.4, and Lia Neal anchored in 21.8.

Also on the relay were sophomores Janet Hu (24.28 back) and Ally Howe (23.37 fly), who flip-flopped roles from last year’s NCAA relay.

Hu was in the hunt for a pair of individual wins, getting one in the 100 back. Hu was more of a butterflyer as a freshman, but appears to be branching into the backstroke events in her second season. She beat out Texas A&M’s Beryl Gastaldello in the second of two races between the two, going 51.45 to win the 100 back over Gastaldello’s 52.31.

Earlier in the night, Texas A&M’s Gastaldello was able to win one for the home team, going 51.68 to touch out Hu’s 51.71 in the 100 fly.

On the men’s side, one of the night’s best swims came from Utah senior Kristian Kron, who rolled to a 2:46.77 in the 400 IM. That will rank at #2 in the NCAA for now, pending the results of this weekend’s other invites, which aren’t yet reflected in the national rankings.

LSU junior Logan Rysemus was also on fire, winning the 100 fly (46.41) and 100 back (46.61) in near-identical times.

Air Force won the 100 breast in a night where the men’s events were split pretty evenly between multiple teams. Michael Barnosky went 53.08, just missing his own school record to pick up the win there.

Air Force also took the 200 medley relay in 1:26.37, which (again pending other results this weekend) will rank behind only Cal in the NCAA standings. That was keyed by a 23.5 from Barnosky and a 19.2 out of anchor Jordan Dahle.

Other big swims from an action-packed night:

• Stanford’s Haase went 58.27 to win the 100 breast. That’s actually faster than she went to win last year’s NCAA title, though she was 58.1 in prelims of the 2015 NCAAs. Her time from Friday night now leads the NCAA by over a second (pending results of the rest of this weekend’s meets).
• Her teammate Neal won the 200 free, going 1:44.87 and beating out Texas A&M freshman Claire Rasmus.
• Utah’s Bence Kiraly won his second event of the weekend, going 1:36.06 to take the 200 free, with SMU’s Christian Scherubl in tow at 1:36.83.
• Stanford also hit the nation’s best women’s 800 free relay time, going 7:04.24. The versatile Eastin was 1:44.5 leading off, and Neal went 1:45.67 on her leg.
• On the men’s side, Arizona State got the win there in a time that outranks all other swims prior to this weekend. Patrick Park was 1:37.36 leading off and Barkley Perry anchored in 1:35.93 as the Sun Devils went 6:29.91.