Ready 4 More: Kennedy Noble Drops Almost 4 Seconds From Best 200 Back At US World Trials

Kennedy Noble came into the 2023 US International Team Trials with a best time of 2:10.53 in the 200 backstroke, making her the 11th seed. Although she finished 4th in finals, she swam another personal best clocking a 2:06.54, bringing her total time drop of the day to 3.99 seconds. 

Noble tried not to come into the meet this week with super hard-set goals. She had a rough goal of around a 2:08 in the LCM 200 backstroke. 

“I don’t like to put expectations on myself because that’s kind of a limit and my coaches like to tell me that a lot,” Noble said. 

After her prelims swim of 2:07.09, where she dropped 3.44 seconds, Noble had a surprised reaction when she got to the wall and saw her time on the board. Noble was in shock and went to the warm down pool right after. 

“I purposefully didn’t look at the results or anything because I knew that the time would have been pretty good in the rankings. Then, one of my teammates came up to me and was like ‘dude, you’re second seed.’  I was like, ‘no, I’m not.’ My teammate responded ‘Yes, you are.’” Noble said. 

“I was freaking out after that. It was really hard to calm my nerves in between, but it was a really surreal feeling to know that I’m in a position to potentially make the Worlds team.”

Heading into finals, Noble continued to not put expectations on herself. She knew that qualifying for Worlds was not the expectation going into the event at this meet. 

“I knew that my family would still love me no matter what. I was happy with [my swim] and the support that I got from my team was unreal,” Noble said of her finals race. 

Noble arrived at NC State this past fall as a freshman and already had a big short course season. She dropped over a second in her short course yards (SCY) 200 backstroke, winning the event at the ACC Championships as well as finishing fifth at NCAAs. 

At the end of last summer, Noble represented the US at Junior Pan Pacs at the end of August, right before arriving on campus. At Junior Pan Pacs, Noble finished third in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes. After that, she went straight to Raleigh where the coaches at NC State allowed her to have a 2-3 week break that she “needed” after the meet. ‘

At NC State, Noble trains alongside some of the top backstrokers (and butterflyers) in the World. Highlighting the backstroke group is Katharine Berkoff, the American Record holder in the LCM 50 backstroke, and Rhyan White. The 2022 LCM Worlds bronze medalist in the 200 backstroke White recently arrived in Raleigh after finishing her NCAA career at Alabama. 

“I knew that [NC State] would only make me better. Not only are they really fast, but they’re really nice and super supportive no matter what. It’s really motivating for sure…having the team help me out the whole summer was really fun. The addition of Rhyan White has been so awesome.”

Noble has had some experience in big ‘A’ finals before, such as the 200 back 2023 NCAA final as well as the 2022 International Team Trials ‘A’ final of the 200 back. 

“[Last year] definitely didn’t feel as high pressure and I know no one was necessarily looking at me last year. But, having Olympic Trials two years ago definitely helped a lot for last night to get a little taste of that fire. NCAAs really translate into this meet because I have the team with me at both meets so that was very comforting for me.”

Noble will enter her sophomore season at NC State this fall. This week, she also went on to finish sixth in the 100 back in a personal best as well as 12th in the 200 IM with another personal best time.