The 200 Medley Relay American Record Quandary

2022 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 23-26, 2022
• McAuley Aquatic Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia (Eastern Daylight Time)
• Prelims 10AM /Finals 6PM
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• Qualified relay teams

Editor’s note: this list was compiled by hand. If we missed someone, please let us know in the comments below

200 medley relay

• NCAA Record: Texas (2017): 1:21.54
• NCAA Meet Record: Texas (2017): 1:21.54
• American Record: Cal (2018): 1:21.88
• US Open Record: Texas (2017): 1:21.54
• Pool Record: Louisville (2022): 1:21.84

Top 8 finishers:

1. Florida- 1:21.13
2. Texas- 1:21.36
3. Cal/NC State- 1:21.69
4. —-
5. Alabama- 1:22.04
6. Arizona State- 1:22.25
7. Louisville- 1:22.29
8. Stanford- 1:22.41

While the 200 medley relay tonight was without a doubt the fastest field ever in this relay, with four of the five fastest times ever coming tonight, an interesting quirk remains: nobody was close to breaking Cal’s 2018 American Record.

As a reminder, in order to be eligible to break an American Record in a relay, all four swimmers must be US citizens and hold US Sporting Citizenship.

Of the top 16 teams this evening, only three, Arizona State, Virginia and Auburn were eligible to break the American Record. Arizona State was the top finisher of that trio, coming in 6th in 1:22.25.

Of the four teams that came in under Cal’s American Record, all of them had international swimmers on their team. NCAA champ Florida had Germany’s Eric Friese split a crucial 19.3 on the fly leg, Texas breaststroker Caspar Corbeau represents The Netherlands internationally, Cal backstroker Bjoern Seeliger, the newly-minted fastest 50 backstroker of all time, hails from Sweden and NC State’s first three legs included Poland’s Kacper Stokowski and Rafal Kusto as well as Dutchman Nyls Korstanje.

Beyond the top four, 7 of the 8 podium relays also included international swimmers with Alabama, Louisville and Stanford all including swimmers that do not represent the United States internationally. For a full list of international swimmer in tonight’s 200 medley relay, check out the table below.

It raises an interesting question: why is this relay so dominated by non-American swimmers?

One likely explanation is that the 50s of stroke continue to be held in high regard internationally through senior-level swimming, while most American meets do not include the 50s of stroke past the age of 12. USA Swimming’s own selection criteria for stroke 50s at the World Championships often does not account for swimmers who are 50 “specialists” and oftentimes places at least one of the 100 individual qualifiers into the 50.

Internationally, however, swim stars can make careers out of the stroke 50s. The Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo has long been a 50 butterfly specialist that does not venture much into the 100 fly. So are swimmers like Brazil’s Nicholas Santos, who specializes in the 50 fly and Italy’s Benedetta Pilato, who specializes in the 50 breast.

With the advent of the ISL in recent years, some American swimmers have begun to specialize in the stroke 50s, though after their NCAA careers ended. Madeline Banic, a former Tennessee Lady Volunteer who now swims for Energy Standard in the ISL, has carved out a niche for herself as one of the top SCM sprint butterfly swimmers on the planet.

For the time being, however, we all get to enjoy some fast swimming, regardless of country of origin.