Lydia Jacoby Clocks 57.54 100-Yard Breast To Break U.S. 17-18 National Age Group Record

2022 MINNESOTA INVITE

WOMEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE – FINALS

  • NCAA ‘A’ Cut – 58.10
  • 2022 NCAA Invite – 59.87
  • Pool Record – 57.23, Breeja Larson (2014)

Top 3:

  1. Anna Elendt (Texas) – 57.48
  2. Lydia Jacoby (Texas) – 57.54
  3. Emma Lezer (Minnesota) – 59.96

When Lydia Jacoby was ranked #3 in the girls’ class of 2022 high school recruit rankings last year, there was a lot of talk about how her short course performances weren’t on par with her ones in long course. There was plenty of evidence to back that up, such as when she failed to final at 2021 Short Course Worlds despite winning Olympic gold the same year, or when she didn’t set personal bests in yards during her senior year of high school (that being said, she didn’t race at any big taper meets in yards, such as NSCAs and Winter Juniors).

However, Jacoby proved her doubters wrong on Friday at the 2022 Minnesota Invite, and showed what she was truly capable in yards. In the 100 breast finals, the Texas freshman swam a massive personal best time of 57.54 to beat out Kaitlyn Dobler‘s 17-18 U.S. National Age Group record time of 57.71, which was set in February 2021. Jacoby finished just 0.06 seconds behind Anna Elendt tonight, and dropped over a second from her previous lifetime best of 58.87.

Elendt and Jacoby are now the second and third fastest swimmers in the NCAA behind Dobler, who swam a nation-leading time of 56.94 at the 2022 Art Adamson Invite.

Jacoby does not turn 19 until February 29 (a date that only exists on leap years, so we can say February 28/March 1 for now) 2023, which means she’s capable of resetting this NAG up until the end of Big 12 conference championships.

Top 17-18 U.S. Performers, Women’s 100 Breast:

  1. Lydia Jacoby, Texas — 57.54 (2022)
  2. Kaitlyn Dobler, USC — 57.71 (2021)
  3. Miranda Tucker, Indiana — 58.10 (2019)
  4. Zoie Hartman, Georgia — 58.27 (2019)
  5. Alexis Wenger, UVA — 58.31 (2019)

Compared to Dobler’s old record, Jacoby was 0.14 seconds faster on her front end, and 0.03 seconds faster on her back end. She has improved her opening speed substantially since getting to college, being able to take out her race over a second faster than she was capable of last year.

Comparative Splits, Lydia Jacoby vs. Lydia Jacoby Kaitlyn Dobler:

Lydia Jacoby, 2022 Minnesota Invite (current NAG) Lydia Jacoby, 2021 Alaska Junior Olympics (previous PB) Kaitlyn Dobler, USC vs. UCLA vs. Utah 2021 (former NAG)
50y 27.07 28.12 27.21
100y 30.47 30.75 30.50
Total 57.54 58.87 57.71

With Jacoby now for certain capable of making an NCAA ‘A’ final (her time would have finished seventh at NCAAs last year), the 2020(1) Olympic champion in the 100 breast is finally beginning to show her potential and value in the yards pool.

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Sewardtsunamis
1 year ago

Congratulations Jacoby! Alaska!

Sherry Smit
1 year ago

Good for her! Congratulations, Texas is really paying off!

Demarrit Steenbergen
1 year ago

Of course she is a leap day child. What else would she be? So technically she is like 4 years old?

Wethorn
Reply to  Demarrit Steenbergen
1 year ago

What was the NAG record in the 4-6 age group? Guessing that won’t be broken again for quite some time.

Last edited 1 year ago by Wethorn
Eddie
1 year ago

Didn’t Alex Walsh go 58.1 when she was in that age group?

Lpman
1 year ago

Pleeeease beat Lily King in 2024!!!!

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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