The Bolles’ School’s Ryan Murphy kicked off USA Swimming’s Short Course Junior National Championships with a National Age Group Record. In fact, when combined with his Bolles School teammates, he was better than a total of four National Age Group Records (though, with an international swimmer on each relay, they don’t officially count).
The biggest of those records to go by the wayside is the 200 IM mark swum by the legendary Michael Phelps when he took a huge win in 1:45.77. That breaks Phelps’ NAG mark of 1:46.30 set all the way back in 2002, which is the same year that he set an American Record in the long course version of the event at the Pan Pac Championships. That’s a huge mark to break. He also took down David Nolan’s meet record of 1:46.26 from 2009.
But that wasn’t Murphy’s only record. He led off Bolles’ 200 free relay in 20.02, which betters the 20.14 set by Wisconsin swimmer Kyle Bubolz a year after Phelps’ swim in 2003. He wasn’t the only strong swim on that relay – in fact, the other three rolling starts were all under 20-points as the Sharks rolled to a total time of 1:19.82. That broke the Junior Nationals record, and was faster than the National Age Group mark set by the Claremont Club last year. Because Joseph Schooling represents Singapore internationally, however, it doesn’t count as a NAG mark.
That’s an amazing time for any junior relay, but even moreso impressive given that it was made up of three 16 year olds and a 15 year old. The other 3 swimmers on the squad were Joseph Schooling, Santo Condorelli, and Caeleb Dressel.
That same group, but with Teo D’Alessandro instead of Condorelli, also smashed the Junior Nationals record with a 3:14.92 in the 400 medley. Murphy led off in 47.81. That relay time is only about 3 seconds off of what would score at the NCAA Championships, an incredible feat.
Other highlights were a 4:19.47 from Georgia commit Matias Koski in the men’s 500 free, and a 20.10 from another Georgia commit Matthew Ellis to win the 50 free. Coming out of this meet, the Georgia men’s recruiting class might look even stronger than it did going in.
Cal commit Kelly Naze of the Denver Hilltoppers just barely missed Lindsay McKnight’s meet record in the 200 IM with a 1:58.07. McKnight was 3rd in this race in 1:59.66.
McKnight also earned a silver in the 50 free with a 22.92, which was just behind the 22.89 win by the Dallas Mustangs’ Claire Brandt. That’s great news for the Texas A&M women, a team she will join next year, as they’re badly in need of sprint talent.
Ryan Murphy didn’t even make top 8 at Juniors. big mistake on his part.
katie ledecky swam the 1650 at Tom Dolan yesterday, but she lost her cap midway through the race… still went a “decent” 16:24.
Yeah Dillinger went 20.04 in prelims-have to wonder if the 500 hurt his chances (though his range is undeniably impressive)
Great swims for Ryan Murphy. The more I see him the more I see a guy like Ryan Lochte. He hasn’t the same underwaters, he’s young for that, but he swims the same events, free, back and IM, he trains in Florida and he has the same first name. You will answer me it’s important for their teams but I don’t understand why sprinters like Nick Dillinger and Caeleb Dressel, two of the best young american talents, swim before their best event, the 50 free, a 500 free for the first and a 200 IM for the second. You must be fresh for sprint events! And I’m sure these two guys could have swum under 20 seconds without that stupid… Read more »
Great swims all around. Bolles is an incredible program. Another Georgia recruit James Powell went 9:00 in the 1000 tonight at the Tom Dolan invite. UGA out did themselves with this class.