Pancake Hot Take: Week 1, Day 1 of Conference Championship Season

This is Pancake Hot Take, where we rate racing on a scale of 1-5 pancakes, and give you our highlights. This is week 1 of major NCAA DI Conference championships, and we are taking you through every day of racing with our picks for the top swims

After 2 days of racing at the SEC Championships and 1 day at the Women’s ACC and B1g meets, we’ve seen 1 major record broken and many lights out swims. For that, I give this 1st portion of conference swimming…

4 Pancakes

Let’s get into it.

I’ll say what we’re all thinking… 4:06?! DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? It happened. Kieran Smith dropped an absolute bomb, smashing the NCAA, US Open, and American records in the 500 free with a 4:06.32, which obviously takes swim of the day, surprise of the day, and most syrup worthy swim. WITH THAT ASIDE…

• Race of the Day: Erika Brown storming to a 21.03 50 free, solidifying her #2 ranking all-time in the event and inching closer to Abbey Weitzeil’s newly minted 20.9 record.
• Surprise of the Day: I knew Maggie MacNeil fly fast. I knew she could swim free fast. I knew she could swim backstroke fast… but not this fast. MacNeil swimming 23.05 to lead off Michigan’s 200 medley relay, touching at the fastest 50 back EVER? Did not see this coming. But bodes very well for the next few days.
• Syrup on Top: The stars are aligning. There are so many swim stars in the pool this weekend: Beata Nelson, Erika Brown, Maggie MacNeil, Shaine Casas, and now Kieran Smith. And so far, they are ALL swimming fast. I’m just so excited for what the next few days have for us swimming fans.

How many pancakes do you think today deserved? Let us know in the comments below

Stay tuned for Pancake Hot Takes every day after finals. And until then… stay hungry.