Jarod Arroyo Cuts Another Second off His Puerto Rican Record in 400 IM

2020 PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE

• Thursday, January 16 – Sunday, January 19, 2020
• Knoxville, TN – Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center – University of Tennessee
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• Thursday distance session: 4 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)
• Fri-Sun.: 9:30 AM Prelims / 6:30 PM Finals
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Jarod Arroyo has broken his own Puerto Rican Record in the 400 IM for the 2nd time on Friday, but still came up short of the FINA “A” time standard in the event.

Arroyo swam a 4:16.67 which cut more than a second off his record of 4:17.86 set in prelims. His best time coming into the meet was a 4:18.94 from the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju to place 18th. It took a 4:15-low to qualify for the final.

Arroyo’s finals swim was very measured through 300 meters – in fact, at the 300, he was half a second slower than he was in prelims through the breaststroke leg. But a 58.82 split on the freestyle leg more-than-made-up that pace and gave him the record. He finished 2nd behind only American Kieran Smith (4:16.36)

With that swim, Arroyo creeps closer to the FINA “A” cut of 4:15.84. That “A” time is more of a symbolic mark than anything for Arroyo – it’s unlikely that anybody else in Puerto Rico will beat his time – for a country to send 2 swimmers in an event to the Olympics, both need “A” cuts – and being so close, he’ll likely rank high enough internationally to be among the invited “B” cuts.

Puerto Rico sent only 1 swimmer to the 2016 Olympic Games: Vanessa Garcia, who finished 22nd in the women’s 50 free.

Arroyo is currently on a deferral year, pushing off enrollment at Arizona State for a year to train for the Olympic Games.