Rex Maurer had an incredible performance at the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational, setting the American record in the 500 freestyle and finishing the meet with three nation-leading times in the 500 free, 400 IM, and 1650 free.
On the last day of the meet, Maurer won the 1650, dropping 24 seconds and setting a new best time of 14:30.47. Not only is this time faster than anyone else this year, it is also faster than the time that won the 2024 NCAA Championships (Zalan Sarknay’s 14:30.57).
When it comes to race strategy, Maurer had a different approach than others, negative-splitting his 1600, and coming home faster in his last 250 than one of the best closers ever, Bobby Finke, in his NCAA record swim.
Split Comparison
| Rex Maurer (2024 Texas HOF Invite) | Bobby Finke (2020 SEC Championships) | |
| 100 | 50.84 | 49.17 |
| 200 | 53.72 | 51.27 |
| 300 | 53.97 | 51.60 |
| 400 | 54.05 | 51.64 |
| 500 | 53.79 | 51.60 |
| 600 | 53.59 | 51.91 |
| 700 | 54.08 | 51.72 |
| 800 | 53.64 | 51.94 |
| 900 | 53.40 | 52.03 |
| 1000 | 53.28 | 51.75 |
| 1100 | 53.00 | 52.24 |
| 1200 | 52.59 | 51.93 |
| 1300 | 52.45 | 52.08 |
| 1400 | 52.19 | 52.12 |
| 1500 | 51.33 | 52.07 |
| 1600 | 50.63 | 51.92 |
| 1650 | 23.92 | 25.09 |
| Final Time | 14:30.47 | 14:12.08 |
Maurer’s first 800 was 7:07.68, and consisted of mostly 53 and 54-second 100s. His second 800 dropped to 6:58.87, where he went only two 53s, and the rest of the race was 52s, 51s and one 50. His 16th 100 was faster than his first 100 at 50.63 to 50.84, and his last 50 of 23.92 was over a second faster than anyone else in the field.
Finke took on a completely different strategy, opening the first 800 in 6:50.85, then splitting 6:56.14 on the next 800. Unlike Maurer, his first 100 was his fastest—he split the race consistently throughout and ended up with a time 18 seconds faster than Maurer.
When Maurer swam these splits on Friday evening, he took it out relatively easy and he was behind second place swimmer David Johnston for most of the race. It wasn’t until the 1550 mark that Maurer overtook him, and 100 later he won the race by 5 seconds. Compared to Maurer, Johnston split a very consistent race, but lost to the incredible back end speed Maurer put up.
Last 250 Split Comparison
| Rex Maurer | Bobby Finke | David Johnston | |
| 1450 | 25.65 | 26.03 | 26.69 |
| 1500 | 25.68 | 26.04 | 26.89 |
| 1550 | 25.60 | 25.87 | 26.91 |
| 1600 | 25.03 | 26.05 | 27.15 |
| 1650 | 23.92 | 25.09 | 26.11 |
| Total 250 time | 2:05.88 | 2:09.08 | 2:13.75 |
Last 300 (Finke) 350 (Maurer and Johnston) Visual
Finke would have almost lapped Johnston and Maurer had they been in the same heat, but Maurer was faster on the back end than even Finke’s NCAA record breaking swim. If he finds a way to keep hold of his blistering back end speed while being faster in the front, like Finke’s 1500m world record swim, we could see Maurer challenge Finke’s NCAA record in the coming years. After all, Finke was only 14:47 in November of 2019, and he set the record in February of 2020.
Notably, Noah Millard of Yale went a 14:33 this past weekend.
404 suggests he can go way faster in the mile
Yea that’s what happens when Bobby is holding 51s for 80% of the race lmao. Cmon now
I am becoming cautiously optimistic about the future of US Men’s mid-d and distance swimming
Breaking news: someone who was pacing slower came home faster
He has given away his race strategy for March. If someone wants to beat him they will need to take it out fast and build a lead
Or it was his first 1650 in 2 years so maybe he took it out conservatively because he wasn’t sure how the back end of the race would feel? Don’t think 1 datapoint should be used to draw strong conclusions about future events.
It’s a good datapoint tho. I don’t know why he would swim it differently. The points from winning will be way more important than going a best time
Someone with a 4:04 500 is not going out that slow.
Is he going to Budapest?
No
I think he should at least do US Open
US Open is SCY so idk why he would
And to think Rex did not want to swim this Friday …