Northwestern junior Jasmine Nocentini has found a new event. A native of Italy, Nocentini swam her freshman year at Florida International University, then transferred to Northwestern ahead of the 2021-2022 season. She’s currently competing at the 2022 Purdue Invite, where she’s already won the women’s 50 free, swimming a new NU school record and NCAA ‘A’ cut of 21.59.
This morning, Nocentini ripped a 58.31 100 breast in prelims of the women’s 100 breast. The significance of that swim isn’t just that it was a personal best, but that up until a few weeks ago, Nocentini hadn’t raced breaststroke at all in her college career. Through her first two collegiate seasons, Nocentini didn’t race any breaststroke whatsoever, instead, sticking to the sprint free events.
Nocentini raced the yards 100 breast for the first time in her career a few weeks ago at a double dual meet with Illinois and UIC on October 29th. She swam a 1:00.34 in that meet, which would turn out to be an indication of great things to come. The following weekend, Nocentini lowered her time, swimming a 1:00.06 in a dual meet with Michigan on November 5th.
This morning, Nocentini blew right through the 1:00 barrier, clocking a 58.31. The swim came after she split 58.60 on the breast leg of the 400 medley relay last night. This morning, Nocentini put together a great race, splitting 27.51 on the first 50, then coming home in 30.80.
She was only 0.21 seconds off the NCAA ‘A’ cut, which sits at 58.10, this morning. If she were to get the cut tonight, it would mean she went from not racing any breaststroke at all for two years to automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 100 breast in a very short period of time. Practically, it doesn’t necessarily matter if Nocentini gets the ‘A’ cut tonight or not, since she hit the ‘A’ standard in the 50 free last night, which means she’s automatically qualified for NCAAs anyway, and can swim any two events in addition to the 50 free provided she has the ‘B’ standard in the event.
Nocentini first picked up breaststroke over the summer. Competing at the Italian National Championships in July, she clocked a 31.18 in the LCM 50 breast, a time which is under the current FINA ‘A’ standard. It seems that the Northwestern coaching staff looked at her success in the LCM 50 breast this summer and decided to give Nocentini a try in the yards breast events. That plan is already paying dividends, as Nocentini is suddenly looking like a contender to make the ‘A’ final in the 100 breast at NCAAs this season.
Nocentini is also currently awaiting approval from Italy and FINA in her attempt to qualify for Italy’s SC World Championships team. You can read more about that here.
Here are Nocentini’s current yards personal bests in her top events:
- 50 free – 21.59
- 100 free – 47.76
- 200 free – 1:45.42
- 100 back – 53.61
- 100 breast – 58.31
Based on this article, would love to see her uncork an amazing 100 IM. Practice and pancakes at NU, Coleman?
Should be an event at NCAA’s for sure
She went 59.55 SCM here last week… so yeah
It will be good for NU if she decides to participate and attend NCAAs this year. She mysteriously dropped last year after Big Ten championships which really hurt NU results in relays and team standings.