A day after we struggled with whether or not Texas A&M’s Beryl Gastaldello swam the fastest 50 fly split in the history of swimming at the SEC Championships, Kelsi Worrell opened the conversation again on Wednesday.
Worrell split 22.34 on the butterfly leg of Louisville’s medley relay, which by our extensive research (and in 24 hours, nobody has told us we’re wrong) is the fastest butterfly split ever done by a woman, legally.
Gastaldello was a 22.46 on Tuesday, which at the time we believed to be the fastest ever, save for a 22.30 done by Stanford’s Elaine Breeden in 2009 on a relay that was DQ’ed. Now, Worrell’s swim will take that torch.
Worrell finished 2nd in the 100 fly at last year’s NCAA Championships as a sophomore, and currently leads the nation in that event at 50.91. Based on her history, that time puts her on target to break the all-time record of 50.01 at year’s end.
That’s my cousin and she is a major bad jazz. Olympic gold medals on the way. So proud of my cousin. And her younger sister swims at South Carolina. Remember the Worrell name there are 6 kids.
I’m gonna do a Bobo 😉 and remind everyone that I said some time last fall this was her year. She’s a HUUUUGE talent.
She was 9.74 on the first 25, that is simply absurd. She might be better off doing fly for the first 25 of her 50 free on their 200 free relay then freestyle on the way back.
Crazy split, definitely, and I realize you’re not totally serious but that 25 is aided by the fact that the clock stops at the beginning of the turn in butterfly (touching with the hands) while it doesn’t stop until the end of the turn in freestyle (planting the feet). That’s why the fastest 25 at men’s NCAA’s last year was Jack Conger on the fly leg of the medley relay. In free, the turning time is contained in the first split, while fly carries the turning time in the second split. My guess is that doing freestyle with an open turn would result in the fastest 25 split of all.
She was wearing the new TYR Avictor too . . . looked bad @$$ in that color!
No perhaps about it… that is unparalleled.
I would love to see a dream heat of 50 flyers in the NCAA this season:
Kelsi Worrell (Louisville)
Marne Erasmus (SMU)
Beryl Gastaldello (Texas A&M)
Janet Hu (Stan)
Farida Osman (Cal)
Harper Bruens (Tenn)
Dani Barbiea (Mizzou)
Kendyl Stewart (USC)
Tina Bechtel (UKY)
Ivy Martin was 22.6 today