Ryan Held twice clocked an unofficial pool record of 9.57 swimming the short course meters (SCM) 25 freestyle at Arizona State’s head-to-head tournament this week in Tempe, ultimately prevailing in the final against Jack Dolan by less than a tenth of a second.
Held, a 28-year-old Olympic champion back at Rio 2016, posted a time of 9.63 in the championship round to beat Dolan’s 9.70.
The top overall seed among the 16 swimmers in the bracket, Held blazed a pair of 9.57s to take down ASU graduate Grant House (9.90) in the quarterfinals and rising senior Patrick Sammon (10.15) in the semis. House was slightly faster in the first round at 9.89 during his victory against incoming freshman Tolu Young (10.32) of Fiji.
Dolan eliminated Michigan graduate transfer Cam Peel (10.11) and rising junior Jonny Kulow (10.03) en route to the final with times of 9.78 and 9.84, respectively. Kulow posted his fastest time (10.00) in the first round against rising junior Andy Dobrzanski (10.60).
Held continued his streak of wins at ASU’s 25 free “World Championships” after earning the past three titles in the yards version of the Sun Devils’ tournament. He went 8.4 in the 25-yard free during his victory last October and 8.19 last February, just short of his unofficial record that stands at 7.96.
- Related: Ryan Held Clocks 48.30 100 Free at Sun Devil Open, Beats Fellow Olympic Hopeful Jonny Kulow
Held is my sleeper pick to surprise everyone. Been popping off lately and ASU can coach. Clearly faster than he’s been leading into big meets in other years. Ofc, barely a “sleeper”, but I feel like SS commenters underrate him
Videos on poolside perspective
sleeper pick for the 50 and 100
HELD vs DRESSEL vs PROUD vs MCEVOY – who wins?
Dressel at peak goes 8 in 25m free
In a recent poddcast Ryan’s coach, Herbie Behm, said he had (hand-) timed Ryan at 7.9 seconds for 25 YARDS, taking just 6 strokes. The guy obviously knows how to sprint…
I remember Bill Pickzuck(I don’t know if I wrote correctly) in the nineties holding 25SCM free WR, I think it was the first man under 10s, right? Nice battles against Olympian Bronze medallist Fernando Scherer.
In 2001 there was swim meet in East Meadow, New York, called Novo Nordisk Sprint Cup with 25 m freestyle as one of the events. Many world class swimmers of the time attented and Aaron Ciarla won the event.
I’ve got faith in you, Ryan!
Let’s do this thing!
Soon to be 2x Olympian 🤘
This is fun