2023 NCAP ELITE QUALIFIER
- June 2-4, 2023
- LCM (50 meters)
- Stafford, Virginia
- Meet Mobile: “2023 NCAP Elite Qualifier”
With less than a month out from Trials, we may start to see some athletes take a step away from competing in official meets. This weekend though, some athletes that will be at US Trials are competing near Fredricksburg, Virginia. Among this group are most of the Virginia Cavalier swimmers as well as some of the top club swimmer names in the area such as Thomas Heilman, Erin Gemmell, and Camille Spink. All of Virginia was suited up.
2022 World Championship gold medalist in the women’s 200 IM Alex Walsh swam a 2:09.61 in the event. It was her first time swimming in the event this season. Walsh’s best time is a 2:07.13 which she swam to win gold last July.
Walsh currently is the second fastest American in the event this season as Regan Smith swam a huge personal best of 2:08.48 Friday night.
Split Comparisons:
| NCAP | 2022 Worlds |
2022 International Team Trials
|
|
| Fly | 28.4 | 27.29 | 27.62 |
| Back | 32.39 | 32.06 | 32.61 |
| Breast | 38.23 | 36.84 | 36.85 |
| Free | 30.59 | 30.94 | 30.76 |
| 2:09.61 | 2:07.13 | 2:07.84 |
The biggest difference between Walsh’s time here and in finals at both International Team Trials and at Worlds last year was her fly and breaststroke legs. Although she was slightly faster on the free leg, her breaststroke split was over a second slower here. Even with her breaststroke being slightly slower today, Walsh swam the 200 breaststroke yesterday in a 2:25.25 which makes her the fifth fastest American this season.
Gretchen Walsh also highlighted the night as she swam a 54.02 in the 100 free. That is a season best for Walsh. It also is her third fastest swim ever. Walsh swam a 55.57 in the event at 2022 International Team Trials and finished in 22nd place. At the end of summer 2022, Walsh won the event at Summer Nationals in a 53.86. Her personal best of 53.75 is from summer 2019. Walsh now is the third fasest American in the event this season, only behind Abbey Weitzeil and Katie Ledecky.
Highlighting the men’s side of the night was Thomas Heilman. The 16 year old won the 200 IM in a 2:03.24, a new personal best. Heilman swam a personal best of 2:03.32 just two weeks ago. Heilman has already dropped over a second and a half so far this season as his best time prior to this summer was a 2:04.89.
At the end of the session, Heilman closed the night with a 49.72 in the 100 free. That was a season best for Heilman as he sam a 50.05 a few weeks ago. His best time of 49.06 at 2022 Junior Pan Pacs during prelims.
2022 Summer National Champion in the 200 back Jack Aikins won the event in a 1:58.04. That was a season best as he swam a 1:59.24 in Atlanta three weeks ago. Aikins won Summer Nationals in a 1:57.52. His personal best of 1:56.29 earned him a third place finish at 2022 International Team Trials, only 0.83 seconds off of making the US Worlds roster.
Other event winners:
- Women’s 200 backstroke: Reilly Tiltmann 2:13.10
- Women’s 50 breaststroke: Emma Weber 31.15
- Men’s 50 breaststroke: Noah Nichols 27.87
Gretch is swimming great
New approach with GW is that I have no expectations
Regan just dropped a 2.03.87 in the 200 fly….wow!!
Dang! Can’t wait to see what she throws down in a 2back
Kaylee’s definitely in danger 😨
Oh lawd Bob created another new Michael Phelps
I thought I read it as 2bk 💀. Impressive!!
Came here to post the same incredulous remark 😯 Also just realized that’s an American record?!?!
Dude. She just smoked the AR. Is that a textile WR?
Nope, she missed Zhang Yufei’s textile record by 0.01
Recency bias caused so many to already hand the gold medal to Summer but Regan’s previous PB from Tokyo already showed she’s a threat for gold because there was no way she wasn’t gonna drop time with higher volume training under Bowman.
Kaylee you in danger girl.
I called this last night!
I believe that her swim is the 4th fastest all time!
My comment got stuck in the spam filter but I’ll try again. People were silly to be handing McIntosh the gold medal already because Smith’s PB from Tokyo was already in striking distance despite inadequate volume while at Stanford.
Jack Aikins came into this year just 1 spot away in the 200 back. His trajectory has been consistent, he seems ready for his breakthrough meet later this month.
Gretchen drops a 52 this summer. You heard it here first.
Totally here for this. Especially on a relay to win gold.
Keep dreamin’
She typically doesn’t drop much when she rests even with a fast suit on. I’m curious why you think this summer will be any different?
She went a 55 mid in June last summer and then a 53 high at the end of the summer. She is a 54 flat in June this summer….
She does have a history of swimming fast in-season, but I don’t think I’d go as far to say that she doesn’t drop much when she rests. She dropped ~0.7s in the 100 free and ~1s in the 100 back at NCAAs from her season bests, which also included rest meets with a winter invite and ACCs. A 52 may be far fetched, but if we pretend this small meet was the ACCs of her LCM season, .7s brings her to a 53.3 and an equal drop by percentage would put her at 53.2.
Who knows what she’ll end up going, but I’m certainly not ready to write off some very strong swims.
So her breaststroke was about 1.4 seconds slower for the 50 split in the 200 IM compared to her taper times from last year. She just went a 2:25 in the 200 breast. Could we expect a big time drop there is she decides to swim it at trials?
Thought Gretchen would be faster than that after the big drop in 1fly.
Something tells me she’s in hard training. Pretty legit times if you ask me
Yes, i could see 53,6/53,7 in 100 free in trials and 56,5 in 100 fly. 50 free 24,3/24,4?
Lil faster I reckon. That 48.2 tells me somethin. It converts to a lc 1 free I swear!
Let’s go hoos!!! ✌🏼✌🏼