Josh Zuchowski Cracks Junior National Meet Record in 200 Back with 1:58.42

by Spencer Penland 1

August 03rd, 2022 Club, National, News

2022 SPEEDO JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

BOYS 200 BACKSTROKE – FINALS

  • World Junior Record: 1:55.14, Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS) – 2017
  • Meet Record: 1:58.49, Ian Grum (2019)
  • 13-14 NAG: 2:00.28, Keaton Jones (2019)
  • 15-16 NAG: 1:57.03, Aaron Peirsol (2000)
  • 17-18 NAG: 1:55.15, Aaron Peirsol (2002)

Top 8 Finishers:

  1. Josh Zuchowski (Flood Aquatics Swim Team) – 1:58.42
  2. Caleb Maldari (SwimMAC Carolina) – 1:59.92
  3. Will Modglin (Zionsville Swim Club) – 2:00.85
  4. Brandon Miller (North Carolina Aquatic Club) – 2:00.83
  5. Humberto Najera (The Swim Team) – 2:03.24
  6. Jonny Marshall (Firestone Akron Swim Team) – 2:03.64
  7. Tommy Hagar (Commonwealth Swimming) – 2:03.69
  8. Luigi Franco (Unattached-FL) – 2:05.14

Flood Aquatics Swim Team’s Josh Zuchowski, soon-to-be a Stanford Cardinal, sped to victory in the boys 200 backstroke tonight at the Summer Junior Nationals in Irvine. Zuchowski clocked a 1:58.42, taking 0.02 seconds off his previous best time and breaking the meet record in the process. The meet record was held by Ian Grum from 2019 at 1:58.49.

Additionally, Zuchowski remains at #15 all-time in the 17-18 boys age group. His previous best was swum at the International Team Trials in April, where he swam a 1:58.44. Here is a split comparison between Zuchowski’s swim tonight, his previous best time from April, and Alex Katz‘s meet record from 2013.

Splits Josh Zuchowski – 2022 Junior Nats Final Josh Zuchowski – International Team Trials Ian Grum – 2019 Junior Nats
50m 27.68 27.62 28.03
100m 57.46 (29.78) 57.37 (29.70) 57.84 (29.81)
150m 1:27.77 (30.31) 1:27.66 (30.29) 1:28.08 (30.24)
200m 1:58.42 (30.65) 1:58.44 (30.78) 1:58.49 (30.41)
FINAL TIME 1:58.42 1:58.44 1:58.49

It’s interesting that not only were the times from Zuchowski’s two races and Grum’s previous meet record all within 0.07 seconds, all 3 races were swum very similarly. Zuchowski was out a little faster than Grum, splitting roughly half a second faster than Grum on the first 100, but Grum was slightly faster on the back half.

It’s notable that Zuchowski’s race tonight and his race from April were virtually identical. All of his 50 splits tonight were within 0.13 seconds of the respective splits from April.

You can watch Zuchowski’s race here:

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Yaboi
2 years ago

Meet record actually belonged to Ian Grum- won summer jrs with a 1:58.49 in 2019-
https://swimswam.com/2019-u-s-junior-nationals-six-stars-from-day-2-finals/

Last edited 2 years ago by Yaboi