In the championship final heat of the men’s 200 breaststroke at the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Charlotte, Junior National Team member Reece Whitley destroyed the 15-16 NAG Record by 1.75 seconds.
The previous record was set by Matt Elliott in 2009 with a time of 2:14.67. Tonight, Whitley destroyed Elliott’s record with his time of 2:12.92. He scared the record this morning in prelims with a 2:15.65, only to destroy the record tonight, dropping 1.73 seconds on the day.
Whitley is making a name for himself as one of the top up-and-coming breaststrokers in the country. With his size, he has a ton of potential. It is crazy to consider he is still at the bottom of his age group at 15 years old. You can see his size in the picture below. He is standing next to Arkady Vyatchanin and Nathan Adrian, who both stand at 6’6″.
Arkady Vyatchanin, Reece Whitley, Nathan Adrian, 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series Charlotte (Photo Courtesy of Rafael Domeyko)
With his swim tonight, Whitley is now exactly two seconds off of Kevin Cordes’ 17-18 NAG record in the 200 breaststroke at 2:10.92.
Take a look at his splits below:
- 30.41
- 33.71 (1:04.12)
- 34.21
- 34.59 (1:08.80)
That picture is great!
Someone finally managed to take a picture where Reece just looks like ‘one of the guys’. Of course, those other guys are 25-31 years old, Olympic medalists, and freakin’ enormous!
Curious though, I’ve always thought of breaststrokers as not as tall and lean as long-axis swimmers. There are a few huge breaststrokers (Cordes, Dugonjic, Sprenger), but many of the best are not:
Hansen 6’0
Kitajima 5’10
vdBurgh 6’0
Gyurta 6’1
Koseki 6’2
Yamaguchi 5’9
Peaty 6’3
Jamieson 6’1
Look at the slope of Reece’s year over year improvements
He’s just a pup, he’s just getting started
He may grow more & will definitely get stronger
Age: 100yd / 200yd / 100m / 200m
15: 53.66 / 1:55.44 / 1:01.86 / 2:12.92
14: 53.06 / 1:55.52 / 1:03.23 / 2:16.48
13: 55.62 / 2:00.14 / 1:06.83 / 2:23.45
12: 59.90 / 2:09.40 / 1:12.18 / 2:39.12
Also I wouldn’t leave Will Licon out of any conversation about top US breastrokers
Usa is having a great team of breasstrokers – seriously showing very good times ! that bodes so well for the future . Yipiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
The smiling Giant !!! love this guy !!! he is the future of Us breast with a giant smile and a huge size . He has XXXL shoulders height when u see Nathan next to him . Unbeleivable
He is part of this unbeleivable group of young talents coming on the scene right now .
So exciting for the next few months . GO REECE , U rock
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/high_school/Swimming_Phenom.html
The race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HfAJz31-Vo
Black swimmers are starting to kick butt in the US.
Look at Whitley’s feet, they look huge. But just when I thought Whitley removed breaststroke from the NAG records, Michael Andrews busts out a 1:01.6. The US has traditionally been weak in breast, unlike say Great Britain. I hope these boys can continue their success. I’m not sure what happened to Cordes last year, but it seems like he imploded. I’m not sure he’s going to be a factor in 2016.
Cordes set the US Open record in the 200 breast at Nationals, and despite DQing in the 100 breast at Pan Pacs, split 58.64 in the medley relay, less than a tenth of second slower than what Eric Shanteau swam in a shiny suit when the US set the world record in 2009. Cordes certainly had an inconsistent summer (including his evening swims at Nationals), but I think it’s hard to say that he imploded.
U read my thoughts Tom From Chicago
Battles between Matthew Wilson and whitely to come hopefully