2024 ST TXLA UT Invite Pro Athlete Time Trials
- November 20, 2024
- SCY (25 yards)
- Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, TX
- Full results under “ST TXLA UT Invite Pro Ath” on Swimcloud
In the same meet where Carson Foster briefly broke the American record in the 500 free, other pros training at the University of Texas also threw down short course yards times at the ST TXLA UT Invite, which happened this past weekend while the adjacent Texas Hall of Fame Invitational was taking place for NCAA athletes.
One of the more notable showings came from Shaine Casas, who has been training as a pro at Texas since 2021. Casas clocked a time of 1:39.44 in the 200 IM, a 1:31.27 in the 200 free and a 44.18 in the 100 back. His performances in all three events were his fastest since the 2020-21 NCAA season, the last season where he was a collegiate swimmer competing for Texas A&M. In the 100 back and 200 IM he posted his second fastest performances of all-time, behind the 43.87 and 1:38.95 that he swam respectively at the Art Adamson Invitational. His 200 free was also his no. 2 performance ever, behind the 1:30.59 he clocked at the 2021 NCAA Championships.
Notably, Casas’ 100 back and 200 IM times were faster than what he put up to win both events at 2021 NCAAs.
Aside from his 500 free, Foster also swam other races. One of them was the 200 breast, where he went a best time of 1:52.93 — improving from his previous PB of 1:53.77 set in February 2023. Breaststroke has historically been Foster’s worst stroke, and yet he still swam a time that would have just missed the ‘B’ finals of the 200 breast at 2024 NCAAs by 0.22 seconds.
Foster also went a time of 3:34.50 in the 400 IM, which is his second-fastest performance ever and around a second off his personal best of 3:33.79 from 2022 NCAAs.
Chase Kalisz was another notable pro competing, firing off a 1:43.38 200 fly, 1:45.34 200 IM and 53.57 100 breast. So was Misha Lyubavskiy, a Russian swimmer who last competed for George Washington University during the 2023-24 NCAA season. He swam times of 4:21.20 in the 500 free and 3:47.77 in the 400 IM, with his 500 free time being an improvement from his previous best of 4:21.63.
The only woman who raced at this invite was 2024 Texas graduate Anna Elendt, who swam a formidable time of 57.94 in the 100 breast. This time is less than a second off the time of 57.04 that she swam to place fourth in the event at 2024 NCAAs.
I have a hard time imagining this training group. If you push 52-point repeats on 100 fly are you going fourth in your lane?
I am glad that American swimmers are improving and working towards their potential: that is good news!!!
Go USA go all the way!!!
I thought Kalisz was done after Paris. It was a great accomplishment to make the team again and defend his 4IM title, but with all due respect, what’s the end game here? Keep grinding out 4IMs or go down to the 2IM and compete with the likes of Casas and Foster?
Maybe he likes swimming? What’s wrong with what he’s doing?
He needs to build more muscle and focus on 200. I think he has a real shot there if he focuses solely on that event
Chase Kalisz reminds me of a certain László Cseh
Maybe there is no end game for him. He might just be in it for the love of the sport and will keep going as long as he can stay relevant and make a living off of it.
I don’t know how the money side of it works, but I imagine it is heavily dependent on the whims of the major sponsors since the prize money is insignificant for most. As an Olympic gold medalist, you can probably ride that wave for a while but eventually the money runs dry if you don’t remain relevant.
Casas is probably one of the most talented swimmers ever. He’s just gotta figure ou How to channel it and lock in and I think that’s happening.
🤜🤛🫡
If Bowman can unleash him, it will be one of his greatest coaching feats.
I agree. If anyone has a chance to pull it off, I think it’s Bowman.
Yea he’s back
It’s over leon
A tad premature
A tad only.
Even completely.
Provocative statement i guess.
Marchand is still far away from being dethroned, believe me!!
It’s only over if he has the high ground.
Shaine’s fast again? Alright, game over
I’m strangely cautious with my optimism about him. Being able to swim fast was never the problem.
I think he’s had very few fast swims since Nationals 2022, and I think the problem that you’re implying is what led to the less than stellar performances since 2022. I agree that the mentality issues have played a major role. I’ve also read a lack of dedication to being a professional also played a role and who better than Bowman to get that under control. I saw a recent interview of Bob’s where he said that he won’t take pros that don’t benefit the college team and I have to imagine that if Shaine’s not acting like a professional, he’ll be booted instead of tolerated.. I can’t imagine an 80-83 yr old Eddie was the best coach for someone… Read more »
I also doubt that Eddie was a good fit for him, but I don’t think coaching is the only problem. Shaine clearly struggles under pressure, and that’s not something that will go away with a coaching change, he will have to adress it personally. There are a few Bowman athletes that have flourished under his coaching that still struggle to bring their best under pressure – Regan Smith is an obvious example, who owns two faster times than McKeown in the 100 back yet failed to beat her in Paris, and was way off her SB in the 200 back, but Kos also comes to mind, because he was clearly capable of making 3 finals in Paris but only made… Read more »
Regan is doing fine. Olympics is just one meet and McKeown is Phelps like when it comes to OLY performances. There will be other opportunities to shine.
1:39 is really fast but it’s still over 2 seconds slower than Marchand. And previously mentioned, Casas has never had an issue with swimming fast, you just didn’t know when he’d do it, and seemed to struggle at some bigger meets.
What are we thinking is fast for Shaine? He’s had maybe 5 swims I’d consider fast since August/December of 2022.
It may be over 2 seconds slower than Marchand, but 1:39.4 is pretty solid for someone who has never been a SCY guy and has been pretty consistently better in LCM. His breakout was in LCM. 45 high in the 100 back at SEC’s in 2019 and 52.7 that summer. He was 1:41.4 2 IM in March of this year and went on to swim 1:55 at trials.
Shaine is also one of the only people to beat Marchand since Marchand began his rise from Tokyo to Paris and the only one I think to have beaten him in an… Read more »
i mean it’s a good time of course, but Shaine has never really had issues with having fast season bests, they just didn’t come super reliably at the major meets. Like case in point: his personal best in the SCY 200 IM is literally from the same time of the year from 4 years ago.
Wouldn’t say he has never been a SCY guy either considering that same PB made him #3 all time when it was swam. He’s certainly not a SCY specialist either but like he’s clearly more balanced between SCY and LCM than like
Carson Foster (maybe not so good of an example after the 500 free american record lol but you get my point)Rhyan White