2017 U.S. WINTER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- November 29th-December 2nd
- Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, Columbus, OH
- Short Course Yards
- Meet Central
- Omega Results
- NCAA Qualifying
- Live stream (USA Swimming Homepage)
- Thursday Finals Heat Sheet
After breaking the 500 free American, U.S. Open, and ‘fastest time ever’ records in the 500 free, Auburn alum Zane Grothe, who now trains with the post-graduate group at Indiana, had an even bigger hammer in store for later in the meet.
On the final day of competition, in the 1650 free timed final, Grothe swam a 14:18.25. That cut more than 4 seconds off Clark Smith’s former record of 14:22.41 – set this past March.
And, at long last, you can watch that swim, with no commercial interruptions or cutaways, along with the rest of the ‘A’ Final, courtesy USA Swimming. Watch the splits as he runs away from both the field and the American Record. For some context, the 3rd-place finisher in the race, Marcelo Acosta, 36 seconds behind, was 14th in the metric equivalent, the 1500m, at this summer’s World Championships. Grothe lapped him and almost everyone else in the field – the exception being Mitch D’Arrigo, who turned for his final 50 just before Grothe touched.
To see Grothe’s 500 free record swim, click here.
The scary thing is that he will likely go 4 to 8 seconds faster at NCAAs. He was ahead of record pace by 6 seconds at the 1450. When he tapers he will definitely have more front half speed and maybe some extra energy left for that last 200.
Zane has graduated
ha, about 4 years ago.
The announcer says about Zane, “Katie Ledecky impersonation by leading the field by 20 yards…” LOL awesome
I put this on the Train InZane thread a moment ago, but it belongs here as well:
While this is definitely a big deal, and we should be getting excited (especially for a December meet), these swims are equivalent to a 3:42 and 14:39, and that is being very very generous to Zane. We know of close to 10 or more swimmers per event with some overlap (lets call it 15) who are at this level. Kieren perkins was going close to those times in the 90s (and Tom Dolan wasn’t far behind in the 500 back in 1995). I believe if you put Thorpe and Hackett in a SCY pool in 2001 at peak speed you would’ve seen a… Read more »
You’re forgetting Robert Finke
I’d agree with most of this but I think pretty clear the shift has started… Like Clark Smith said last year, the 500 has been a really soft record, and when you see 4 guys break the 1650 in the same race (like NCAAs last year) you can bet it’s not the toughest record either. So I think these latest swims aren’t going to be the records for long. There are plenty of guys pushing it in both events (SC or LC) and the U.S. has a pretty promising group of young distance and mid-distance guys… especially if you look at the <19 year-olds in the 200-400. Hard to know which one or two will break through, but I suspect… Read more »
Mate, their walls were garbage. They certainly can’t swim SC yards like yanks.
He looked so smooth but aggressive, really fun to watch!
I have a feeling he didn’t even push it he hopped out of that pool like you just swam a 50!
Yes, I’m sure he didn’t push it. Looked too easy.
6 beat kick the whole way!
amazing swim!
This brother can swim!
A down vote?