From our original report on Saturday, January 31st.
When he came to Texas, Jack Conger was best known as a backstroker. Now, into his sophomore season at the University of Texas, Conger is emergin as one of the best butterfliers in the NCAA.
He was already 2nd in the nation in the 100 fly coming into this weekend’s two-day tri meet against Arizona and SMU, and now he leads the country in the 200 fly after swimming a suited 1:40.34.
That gives the Longhorns the three fastest 200 butterfliers in the country this season. The current top 5:
- Jack Conger, Texas, 1:40.34, soph.
- Joseph Schooling, Texas, 1:41.00, fresh.
- Clark Smith, Texas, 1:41.42, soph.
- Dylan Bosch, Michigan, 1:41.65, jr.
- Chase Kalisz, Georgia, 1:42.22, soph.
Schooling’s old nation-leader from the Texas Invite mid-season was the old school record, meaning that Conger will now earn the right to hang the old plaque from the record board bearing Schooling’s name in his room as a trophy, following in the Texas tradition.
That swim is also the 5th-best time in the 200 yard fly inNCAA history, and makes him the 4th-best performer.
Top 5 all-time performances in NCAA history
- Dylan Bosch, 1:39.33
- Tom Shields, 1:39.65
- Marcin Cieslak, 1:40.19
- Tom Shields, 1:40.31
- Jack Conger, 1:40.34
This wasn’t an end-of-season win for Conger, this was a January swim, and while he’s now the fastest Longhorn of all-time, he’ll still have some work to do to become the NCAA Champion. Besides his teammate Schooling, he’ll have to battle the defending champion and U.S. Open Champion Dylan Bosch from Michigan in March.
In case anyone was wondering stroke count: 4,5,5,6,6,6,7,7.
I saw 666 in there, conger worships Satan
Tough to tell from the video’s vantage point but it looked like a lot of easy speed in that first 100.
The most exciting thing about this for me is actually that while Conger has solid underwaters, they’re nowhere near Shields-esque. He’s barely making it halfway, where Shields is 15m off every wall. In my mind, someone who can go 1:40 without abusing the underwaters is going to have huge potential in long course. I’m sure that whatever events he swims in March, he’ll do fine, and it’s great that his underwaters have room to improve, but the real question is what can we hope for this summer after his 51 at the pro series and then this?
Can you clarify what is “suited” vs non suited? I thought the tech suit era was over.
“Suited” just means you are wearing a fast suit–which pretty much means a jammer. 98% of the time, teams just wear briefs in dual meets.
There are still tech suits… they just don’t impact the body position or cover as much of the body as before…
And suited up vs. not means rather than wear a brief type suit he wore the jammer style tech suit.
The supersuit era is over, but the manufacturers learned a few things from it about how to make swimmers faster. There’s a fairly big difference between a top tier tech suit and a speedo, but I’d suggest that the biggest advantage for an event like the 200 fly is the compression of the thighs. I was in my prime during the supersuit years and can tell you that your legs just didn’t get tired no matter how hard you kicked, it was ridiculously fun but obviously game-breaking. Anyway, since then, the compression has been increased from the aquablade/FS2 days because it helps the legs last a bit longer (which is why that’s one of the main categories people look at… Read more »
And with a crunched finish!
Nice work. Should be in top 5 contender at NCAA’s.
What? He’s 5th ALL TIME. He’s obviously a contender…
So last I heard Conger was planning to swim the 1 fly, 1, back, 2 back at NCAAs… This certainly changes things. What do you think his line-up would be now??
1 fly, 2 back, 2 fly?
1 fly, 1 back, 2 fly?
When a kid goes a 1:40 in January you natuarlly assume he’d be swimming it again in March. But it’s team battle, and Conger/Schooling going 1-2 in the 200 fly wouldn’t mean much if Murphy/Pebley went 1-2 in the 200 back. It might almost be better for Texas to throw him in the 200 back just break-up Cals potential points. Maybe he does both? Idk how you play this one….