Indiana 5th-year Gabriel Fantoni swam a 20.9 in the 50 yard fly from a flat-start during an Indiana practice last week.
According to Indiana assistant Luke Ryan, Fantoni (in the closer lane) did the swim after an hour of dryland and 45 minutes of power work.
What’s more impressive is that, unlike many of the end-of-practice swims we see, Fantoni did his time in practice briefs (versus a technical training suit).
In the team’s first two meets of the season, Fantoni has swum the backstroke leg of their 200 medley relays – splitting 21.1 against Kentucky and 21.3 against Northwestern. 21.1 is the split Brendan Burns had on Indiana’s 200 medley relay at last year’s NCAA Championships.
While Fantoni is primarily a backstroker (he was 14th at NCAAs in the 100 back and 16th in the 200 back last season), this swim shows very nearly taper form at the end of a workout and in a training suit, which is a scary early-season result.
While history indicates that we probably won’t get to see full-strength Fantoni in a 50 or 100 fly at a championship meet (though he did only swim two individuals at NCAAs last season), this swim reaffirms some fast early season results from him, which include the #2 100 back time in the NCAA and #3 100 fly time in the NCAA this season.
Watch the race video below:
Note: SwimSwam Staff’s hand timing got right around 21.0, which with the impact of a video makes the 20.9 clocking reasonable.
Hmmm, if you look at the frames of the video he was slightly over 21.0 from the moment of first movement on the blocks until he touches the wall. But coaches will always time fast.
Yeah, just goes to show you that a good practice and no pressure swim can result in faster times in an after practice swim than at a meet. Swimming is funky like that.
Gotta save up for NCAA’s 😩
Sally Save-Up.
I think you switch Burns for back and Fantoni for Fly on the medleys. Nice to have options.
Thanks joe