Louisville Women Still Hold Ten Top Times After First Week in November

by Robert Gibbs 1

November 05th, 2018 College

Thanks largely, but not entirely, to suited swims from the SMU Classic earlier last month, the Louisville women still lead all NCAA Division I teams with ten nation-leading times after the first week in November.

On one hand, it’s a little early in the season to be worrying too much about who’s been the fastest, especially when there’s really no way of knowing just how rested any particular team was for any particular meet, and we know that some of these swims were done with fast suits. But, at the very least, with only a couple weeks until teams start their mid-season invites, the chart below provided a quick snapshot of where the rankings stand currently.

Top Times, NCAA Division I (As of November 5th)

Team Swimmer Time Event Time Swimmer Team
USC Louise Hansson 22.10 50 Free 19.65 Robert Howard Alabama
Louisville Mallory Comerford 47.57 100 Free 43.40 Ruslan Gaziev Ohio State
Louisville Mallory Comerford 1:42.79 200 Free 1:34.84 Khader Baqlah Florida
Louisville Mallory Comerford 4:40.33 500 Free 4:17.06 Victor Johansson USC
Texas Joanna Evans 9:47.68 1000 Free 8:56.41 Ricardo Vargas Michigan
Louisville Sophie Cattermole 16:18.07 1650 Free 15:08.35 Marcelo Acosta Louisville
USC Louise Hansson 51.84 100 Back 46.26 Coleman Stewart NC State
USC Louise Hansson 1:53.10 200 Back 1:42.53 Manuel Bacarizo Northwestern
FSU Ida Hulkko 59.03 100 Breast 51.82 Carsten Vissering USC
USC Riley Scott 2:08.13 200 Breast 1:56.69 Reece Whitley Cal
Michigan Maggie MacNeil 51.49 100 Fly 46.93 Zach Harting Louisville
Louisville Grace Oglesby 1:53.79 200 Fly 1:43.81 David Dixon West Virginia
USC Tatum Wade 1:57.89 200 IM 1:45.58 John Shebat Texas
Louisville Sophie Cattermole 4:11.62 400 IM 3:49.75 Marci Barta Notre Dame
Louisville Comerford, Fanz, Oglesby, Openysheva 1:28.74 200 Free Relay 1:18.31 Waddell, Bams, Blake, Howard Alabama
Texas Cook, Diener, Rule, Adams 3:17.41 400 Free Relay 2:54.78 Apple, Blakovic, Lanza, Samy Indiana
Louisville Dunn, Openysheva, Cattermole, Comerford 7:03.49 800 Free Relay 6:43.08 Arevalo, Kabelka, Van Dyke, Selmanovic Cincinnati
Louisville Kendizor, Astashkina, Oglesby, Fanz 1:37.38 200 Medley Relay 1:26.20 Carr, Sand, Seliskar, Jensen Cal
Louisville Kendizor, Astashkina, Oglesby, Comerford 3:31.45 400 Medley Relay 3:11.38 Fantoni, Finnerty, Lanza, Blaskovic Indiana

Note: Bacarizo’s time, although listed in the NCAA database, is a converted LCM time from the Youth Olympics.  The fastest non-converted time is a 1:42.94, which USC’s Patrick Mulcare swam at the Trojan Invite early last month.

While swimming fast early in the season can’t really be bad, it’s not always clear what to make of the early season leaders.

As we said, some of the times above were done at invites like the SMU Classic or the Trojan Invite, where many, if not all swimmers were suited up. As far we know, most of Louisville’s and USC’s top times were done at one of those two meets, with Louisville’s 1650s and Zach Harting‘s 100 fly time being exceptions.

Other times came during unsuited swims at dual meets from swimmers/teams that we know tend to be pretty good in-season, and back it up come NCAAs.  It’s certainly not surprising to see reigning NCAA champ Coleman Stewart with the fastest time in the 100 back so far. Nor it is surprising that Cal freshman Reece Whitley, one of the best high school breaststrokers ever, already has the fastest time in the 200 breast.

Some events, such as the 1650 or the 800 free relay, simply haven’t been swum all that much, and we’ll most likely some drastic drops in the top times at the upcoming mid-seasons invites.

Then you have the times that could be harbingers of things to come, like Maggie MacNeil‘s 51.49 in the 100 fly, a time which has very quickly put the Michigan freshman into the discussion of the top butterfliers in the country, in her first season in swimming yards after coming down from Canada.

We won’t really know until March how useful these times were in predicting results in NCAAs, but in the meantime, enjoy the speculation.

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ACC fan
5 years ago

So what? They’re one of the only teams to have swum a meet on tech suits….

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