Introducing Brooks Curry: LSU’s ‘X Factor’ & Freshman SEC Champ

From the comment section of our SEC Championships live recaps on Saturday:

“Brooks Curry!! That reaction did not disappoint!”

“He’s definitely had a breakout meet! Hadn’t even heard of him before this weekend.”

“ALL ABOARD BROOKS CURRY HYPE TRAIN”

February is a wonderful time for college swimming, complete with yearly recurring editions of “Who is so-and-so??” after a big breakout swim. LSU freshman Brooks Curry is the latest explosion, shredding a massive 41.81 to win the hotly-contested SEC title in his rookie year.

“I really wasn’t expecting that at all,” Curry said. “I was coming into the meet prepared, and just wanted to do my best and see what could happen. But that was crazy.”

The time, though a shock to many fans, wasn’t too far ahead of what Curry had been angling for much of the season.

“I had written down some goal times awhile ago,” he said. “I know for my 100 free it was like 42.3 or 42.4.”

Curry was also the conference runner-up in the 200 free (1:32.43) – and he says he actually trains up for the 200 distance as much as he focuses on the 100.

“I do a lot of 200 stuff,” he said of his training at LSU, where he spends most of his time in the “upper” group, working 200 pace training. “I’ll be in the lower group (100 and 50) every once in awhile.”

The training plan has worked, as Curry has seen major time drops across his freshman season. (See the chart below).

Pre-LSU Dec. 2019 Feb. 2020
50 free 20.65 19.90 19.30
100 free 44.53 43.38 41.81
200 free 1:38.88 1:36.08 1:32.43

LSU head coach Dave Geyer said he and his staff expected big things from Curry, but were still surprised at the magnitude of the time drops.

“We knew there were going to be some big drops, but being honest I don’t think anyone on staff saw it being that big,” Geyer said. “In January he went 1:36.7 in a dual meet with a brief on. At that point we felt he had a great shot at making NCAA’s in the 200.

“Saturday night was fun obviously. If you listen to the broadcast of the meet, there were plenty of people that were shocked by that swim. Coach Steve [Mellor] has done a really great job with him this year with the balance of taking his talent and potential to its fullest and balance where his maturity is in the sport.”

Curry says his freshman year has been focused on training power and technique. He cited buckets as a big influence on his power, helping him get stronger in the water, and he also said he’s seen improvements in details like starts, streamlines and underwaters.

For Geyer, Curry’s SEC title was a sign of the freshman’s talent as a race.

“It’s apparent that Brooks has that ‘X-factor’ that you hear and see with some elite level talent,” Geyer said. “I saw that first start to come out last summer at Junior Nationals where he sort of had a break out meet. In our dual meets we knew he was a racer and enjoyed that atmosphere. He stepped up time and time again in our dual meets and just seems to really thrive and raise his own level the higher the competition got through the year.   I sense with Brooks it’s not always about the time but more about putting himself in a position to win.”

Curry said he enjoyed the loud, intense atmosphere of the SEC Championships, and was looking forward to more high-level competition at NCAAs and beyond.

Based on last year’s times, Curry should be in line for an NCAA invite – it took 42.54 and 1:34.21 to make the NCAA meet last year. Not only that, but he’s on the cusp of what it took to make NCAA A finals a year ago: 41.76 and 1:32.42.

Further out, Curry says he’s planning to stay at LSU this summer through long course season. The Juniors meet Geyer referenced was part of a massive long course season in which Curry went from 23.8/53.8/1:57.8 in the long course freestyles to 23.1/50.0/1:51.4. The 50 and 100 are already under Olympic Trials cuts, and his 200 should be able to challenge for Trials cuts as well, if he can cut about seven tenths over the next few months.

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Anon
4 years ago

🐐 🐐 🐐

Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

Zane Waddell: “Seriously, you couldn’t have introduced him 2 weeks ago?”

Rocket
4 years ago

Brooks Curry: The Peoples Champion

Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

A slightly hotter take: Curry takes second in the hundred at NCAAs behind Drew Kibler.

taa
Reply to  Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

What about Krueger? He should be 41 low.

DBSWims
Reply to  taa
4 years ago

I really think he meant Krueger

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

Kibler doesn’t have the speed to win the 100 right now.

DBSWims
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
4 years ago

Hes gonna be in a massive battle against Smith in the 200 tho. Maybe Rooney but hes prob swimming the 1 fly

Daniel Jablonski
Reply to  Daniel Jablonski
4 years ago

Woops. I did mean to write Kreuger, I knew it was a Texas guy with a last name that started with K 🤦🏼‍♂️

Hot Takes
4 years ago

Luke warm take: Curry makes the A final at NCAAs

AJW
Reply to  Hot Takes
4 years ago

Can totally see him making an A final or two with the excitement of NCAAs and the insane improvements he has been making so far this season. However, keep in mind that it’s really difficult to balance 2 full tapers and just as hard to perform well at NCAAs as a freshman, especially one who has never swam at a national level meet like that before.

JCO
Reply to  Hot Takes
4 years ago

I’ll warm up that take a bit and say not just an A final, but multiple (100 & 200)

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  Hot Takes
4 years ago

Most that drop a ton of time for their conference meet add time at NCAAs. Very few taper twice for conference and NCAAs and go faster the second meet. It’s certainly possibly, but I’m sure the statistics would show something like 90% that fully shave/taper for conference meet go slower at NCAAs.

Dabestestman
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
4 years ago

Agree with “The Artiest”. Therefore I predict Curry will finish 13th in the 200 and 10th in the 100 at NCAAs – That may be optimistic. That being written, I am a fan of his and wish him well – HOPING he A finals in both too!

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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