Julian Rides Improved Closing Speed to PB 1:54.34 200 Fly, #5 American All-Time

2022 U.S. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS

•  April 26-30, 2022
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Despite missing out on qualifying for the Olympic Team in several events last year, Cal’s Trenton Julian had a great summer, swimming lifetime bests in 5 LCM events.  Julian has historically raced aggressively, taking races out fast, and holding on as best he can. That strategy has gotten Julian to very fast times, however, as was the case at the Olympic Trials last summer, it often yields to him getting run down on the final lap of a race.

It appears as though the 23-year-old may be turning over leaf, however. This morning, he stormed to the top time in the men’s 200 fly, clearing his previous best with a 1:54.34. It’s not just the time, which makes him the #5 American all-time in the event, that’s so impressive about the swim. Instead, it’s how he swam it. Julian was still out fast, splitting 25.47 and 28.59 on the first two 50s for a 54.06 on the first 100. He then kept it under 30 seconds on the 3rd 50, splitting 29.60, then managed a 30.68 on the final 50, resulting in a 1:00.28 on the final 100. His final 50 split of 30.68 marked the 4th-fastest final split in the field this morning, in a field that included the likes of Nicolas Albiero, Luca Urlando, and Zach Harting.

We’ll see how Julian is able to back up the performance tonight, however, if he’s able to go another 1:54-low, regardless of how he gets there, it will likely be enough for him to qualify for the World Championships team.

Let’s take a moment to examine how Julian’s splits in the 200 fly this morning stack up against his previous 200 fly splits in his fastest performances.

As the splits show, not only was this Julian’s personal best performance, his final 50 splits was his fastest yet by nearly a second, and the margin between his 3rd and 4th 50 was significantly smaller than in previous swims. He also managed that without compromising his front end speed, splitting just 0.21 seconds slower on the first 100 than he did on his previous personal best swim from last summer.

Here is the new all-time top 5 American in the LCM men’s 200 fly: