Kevin Cordes wasn’t saving anything for finals in this 200 breaststroke. His 1:49.79 in prelims broke the NCAA, U.S. Open, American, and NCAA Records, all of which belonged to him from Winter Nationals late in 2012, by a full second. His old record was 1:50.73, and nobody was within three seconds of him this morning.
He was swimming so long in this race, that it almost didn’t look like he was going after the record. That was just an illusion of his efficiency, though, as he was taking most lengths at about 4 strokes per 25. Here’s the comparative splits between this swim and the one he did in early December.
| Cordes ’13 | 24.86 | 27.96 | 28.45 | 28.52 | 1:49.79 |
| Cordes ’12 | 24.92 | 28.45 | 28.49 | 28.87 | 1:50.73 |
Cordes and Breeja Larson, the women’s record holder, both swim their breaststrokes in a similar style: huge pullouts, and very long strokes. Whereas Larson was upset in the NCAA final, though, it doesn’t look like anybody is even within range of touching Cordes here at the men’s meet.
Neil Versfeld from Georgia was the old NCAA Championship Record holder with a 1:51.40 from 2009. The second seed going into tonight’s final is his teammate Carl Mickelson in a 1:53.10. The Wildcats will look for a second breaststroke 1-2 in finals.
Indiana’s Cody Miller is the second-fastest in history with a 1:51.03 from this year’s Big Tens, so he may be the one with the speed to get down to Cordes if Cordes lets up in finals; third goes to another former Arizona Wildcat Clark Burckle with a 1:51.20 from the same meet as Cordes’ previous record.
Leading up to the trials in 2012, he dropped his best time every race. At the trials, he had a very low stroke count in the 200, but wasn’t able to sustain his speed. That has changed. He’s still growing and getting stronger. We haven’t seen his best yet. I think he will be able to hold his velocity through a 200 this summer and take this domination to LC.
He came 3rd at the Olympic Trials and has been continuously improving. Still a teenager. Don’t see why he can’t have success and win medals internationally.
The biggest problem is that Yamaguchi is 1 year younger than cordes.. and Gyurta was already medalist at 15.. the competition is with guys with apparently even more natural talent than him.. let´s see how he overcome these 2
That’s a bit simplistic. Michael Jamieson nearly beat Gyurta at the Olympics and he wasn’t even on the radar as a teenager. Cordes is still young and very talented. So it will be exciting to see how he does.
any video of the 200 breast race for cordes this am?
Psychodad living up to his handle… 🙂
He is so long with his strokes I think he can dominate long course
Dominate Long Course?
Very hard to predict that…did you forget 200breast WR holder is only 18?And, right now, Van der Burgh looks like he is in a league of his own in 100breast.Just wondering what time he will do if FINA give underwater kicks a pass…
I guess you forgot what Van der Burgh did to be in a “league of his own.”
No, but even his coming home is a lot faster than he was in the past.Despite his leg kicks, he improved his style a lot.
He took exactly 4 strokes per length except the 1st and last 25 (6)
Headline needs a few more exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
psychodad, he has “no chance” in the 200 breast this summer? This is short course yards, but he looks pretty good to me.