Hardcore Swim of the Week: A Funky Déjà Vu feeling for Michigan

If this week’s HardCore Swim of the Week feels a little bit familiar, you’re not imagining things.

Michigan’s Richard Funk made big statements in his breaststroke races at the SMU Classic. Photo courtesy of Tim Binning.

It’s the middle of January, 2014, and the Michigan Wolverines are starting to swim fast. At a time of year when most teams seem to be limping their way through swims post-training trip and most swimmers are just barely starting to see the taper light at the end of the tunnel (and season/lifetime bests that come along with it), the men of Ann Arbor are in a completely different place. They’re getting faster, starting to emerge, starting to gain confidence.

There’s probably no better swim that exemplifies this development than Richard Funk‘s 52.31 win in the 100 breaststroke at the SMU Classic last weekend. The swim itself is a bit of a head-scratcher. The Perkins Natatorium at SMU, while a classic pool with tremendous character, isn’t exactly ideal for fast swimming – with 6 lanes and at 55 years old, it’s hardly the fastest pool Michigan has swum in this season. Probably more notable is that Funk’s swim came on January 17th, a bit of a dead zone typically for NCAA swimmers.

But despite all that, the Wolverine junior has never been faster this season than he was last weekend at SMU; in fact, outside of Big Tens and NCAAs, he’s never been faster in his college career. That 52.31 is not only a half second faster than Funk went at Winter Nationals, it’s also the second-fastest NCAA time of the season and the fastest 2014 swim in the event by a second-and-a-half.

Here’s where the déjà vu starts to kick in. Wasn’t there a team like this last year? A squad that kept getting faster and faster, putting up pre-conference times that seemed suspiciously fast and stirred up speculation about suiting up, shaving down or resting up?

That’s right, it was the 2012-2013 Michigan Wolverines.

The speed is starting to come out in Ann Arbor once again, and for the second year in a row, experience swimming fans can’t help but speculate as to what it means for these Wolverines come February and March. There were some great swims across the board at the SMU Classic, but Funk’s 100 has to be the most eye-catching (although his 1:54.75 200 is none too shabby either), and sitting second on the NCAA breaststroking list behind Arizona’s Kevin Cordes a month and a half out of conference… that’s about as good as any breaststroker in the nation could hope for at this point.

Certainly the Wolverines are hoping Funk’s performances are the first fruits of another raucous winter like last season’s where the huge time drops never seemed to run out. Certainly this team is a bit less loaded than last year’s, and will probably need that kind of season to defend the NCAA title. Certainly Michigan critics are starting to question (and fairly so) whether this team is peaking too early.

Swimming fast is always good. But swimming unreasonably fast in early January is a good that will always come with some question marks attached.

Then again, Funk and Michigan seem to be welcoming the question marks. They certainly managed to come up with convincing answers last year.

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