In college football, the Southeastern Conference, known to the masses as the SEC, is renowned for its speed.
Outside of Auburn, men’s swimming in the conference hasn’t always had the same reputation. With some very high-profile signings in the last 12 months, and similarly a high level of talent returning, that reputation is changing.
The reigning king is senior Marcelo Chierighini from Auburn. With USC’s Vlad Morozov going pro early, Chierighini becomes the big favorite to sweep the 50 and 100 freestyle titles at next year’s NCAA Championship (he was 2nd in both in 2013 in 18.99 and 41.51, respectively). He is the Brazilian Champion in the 100, and there is a serious chance that he could go after NCAA Records in either race next year (he’s eight-tenths shy of Morozov’s 40.76 in the 100 yard free – not much of a margin for a swimmer of this age).
Chierighini’s teammate James Disney-May is also a top-8 50 and 100 yard freestyler, and will also be a senior next season.
Also returning as a senior next year is Florida’s Brad deBorde. In 2012, when he was a sophomore, he had his big breakout season, but didn’t quite carry that through to NCAA’s. In 2013, he had no such issue, and placed 5th at NCAA’s in the 50 free (and his prelims time would have had him even higher).
Looking back, having three guys in the A-Final at NCAA’s, and one of them not being from Auburn, is pretty notable. Picking back through the years, in 2010, Auburn was the only program to have a sprinter in the top 10 of the 50 free or 100 free at NCAA’s. In 2005, it was the same story: a whole lot of Auburn Tigers, and a few Kentucky swimmers at the bottom of the consolation final.
But sprinters like things warm, they need the heat of the southeast, and that’s where they seem to be migrating.
Enter this year some very promising recruits.
Tennessee has brought in two guys better than 22.5 in the 50 free in long course: Kacper Majchrzak from Poland who’s been 22.4 and Luke Percy, who’s been 22.2. 50’s are very volatile, but no matter how you split it, those times both convert to immediate scoring at the NCAA Championships.
Alabama has added a recently-turned-20 year old sprinter of similar quality: Kristian Gkolomeev from Greece. He’s the son of former Bulgarian swimmer Tsvetan Golomeev, who was a 1980 and 1988 Olympian. Shortly after signing with the Crimson Tide this spring, he went a best time of 22.19 in the 50 long course meter freestyle. He’s also been 49.5 in the 100 long course freestyle (he is a true sprint freestyler).
The American Kyle Darmody isn’t as good as those guys in long course, but he’ll go to the sprinting granddaddies at Auburn with a 19.83 in the 50 yard free: one of the fastest high school times we’ve ever seen.
So far, nobody has been able to wrangle in the National Record breakers from the Bolles program and keep them from going west, but folks we’ve talked to indicate that National Age Group Record breaker, and the top domestic sprinter in the class of 2014, Caeleb Dressel is heavily considering Tennessee and Auburn among his top candidates.
Overall, sprinting is rising in the SEC. Auburn is strong, and will continue to be strong so long as Brett Hawke is there, but the rest of the conference is slowly creeping into that territory. This can only mean good things for the popularity of the sport in the southeast, because, frankly, speed is fun. Speed draws in casual fans. Speed draws in football fans.
Speed is king!! Even as a former middle and D-man myself, many of those events are BORING. If you can’t convince swimmers themselves to get excited and watch an average 1650 free final, good luck getting anyone else!
The sprints are the only way to attract widespread attention and grow the sport outside the parochial swimming community!
Be careful! You launch here a big debate.
Personally when I watch Miss Ledecky in the water, it’s a big show. But perhaps I’m not like the average sport fan. I also love watching Haile Gebreselassie, Kenenisa Bekele or Tirunesh Dibaba in track and field. It’s always a pure delight for me.
LOL, it’s pretty obvious you are not the average swim fan. You are a swim junkie and some swim junkies love distance events. I get that and sometimes, they can be very good when more than one person is challenging the lead. However, far too often the leader is too far ahead to make much of a race out of it.
However, thhe big debate on “are distance events exciting or not” is really only amongst the swimming community and serves no purpose when trying to expand the sport beyond this parochial circle. Sprinting is what grabs outsiders attention!
Caeleb Dressel to Auburn? It would be very cool! It’s rare when the top young American sprinters go there. It would change.
Caelab is class of 2014* I believe. Nice to see Auburn getting a top American sprinter to join for once!
Typo above. “Akabama.”
Keep up the good work.