Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
The Louisville men swam to a season-best 1:26.80 to win the 200 medley relay against Notre Dame. Then six days later, they crushed a 1:25.07 to beat Mizzou. For now, those are the two fastest NCAA medley relays registered in the calendar year 2021.
Mitchell Whyte split 21.58 on backstroke, Evgenii Somov 23.80 on breaststroke, Dalton Lowe 20.37 on fly and Haridi Sameh 19.32 on free in today’s 1:25.0 swim.
Somov was just six tenths off his split from last year’s ACC relay. Whyte was seven tenths off his split from a year ago. And the freshman Lowe is already just a half-second behind what star sprinter Nicolas Albiero split at ACCs last year, perhaps allowing Albiero to focus on the other four relays this season.
Louisville’s season-best was a 1:24.49 swum at a lonely mid-season invite that featured just Louisville swimming against themselves in November. That time would rank 7th in the NCAA this season. The Cardinals are looking like a force to be reckoned with in the medley relays as conference and national championship season approaches.
