At the Big 12 Championships last night, SwimSwam caught up with longhorn great Will Licon. Licon was excited to finally have feeling and energy in his legs back for once, as the UT pro group will be coming down in training for the Atlanta Pro Swim.
We also asked Will about his thoughts on the conference meets that have occurred so far, specifically about the times that have been thrown up. Will expressed his surprise and respect at the American records that were broken by Caeleb Dressel in the 200 IM and the 100 Breast (his “off” events). But he also spoke about how fast the sport has gotten from the lower end, and how 5-10 years ago, only a couple guys had ever broken the legendary 19 second barrier in the 50 yard free. Now, it’s commonplace to win a conference meet with that time.
It’s the Phelps effect. He drew athletes into the sport who, 20 years ago, would have been great at more mainstream sports. Caeleb Dressel would be great at anything he tried. But Phelps made it “acceptable” for young men to choose swimming instead of baseball or football. Missy and Katy on the ladies side probably have a similar effect.
Will Licon is a Class act! I hope he continues to drop times and represent the US in 2020!
I think it’s impossible not to like this guy, Licon is the man!
147 200 breast is absurd
I wish he would go back to swimming the 400IM and drop the 100 breast
I think the 4IM is much more open than the 100 breast is, so I agree
Also training for the 400Im can only help us 200 imo. get that back half speed nailed down
Or even the 200 IM. Opened up a lot too.
He isn’t training for the 400 IM.
Can’t wait to see the Texas pro group throw down rested.
Hopefully they’ll be able to translate their scy swimming into long course. Conger will hopefully be at 50.9 1:53 for the fly and 48 1:45 for the freestyle events (if he’s swimming these). Who knows how Smith will do, but hopefully we’ll see if he is after the 1500 or just the 400/800. Licon will hopefully have a breakthrough the the breast and IM events.
They will have fast times but I don’t know about 50.9 or 48… I could see the 1:53 though.
48 and 50.9 are much more likely than 1:53. He’s been 51.2 and has had 47 splits before
I guess you could say his pure guts 200 scy doesn’t translate to lcm for conger.
That’s the case for basically everyone, not just conger. When you have 7 turns and spend on average 12-15m swimming vs 3 tuns and on average 40m swimming of course you won’t swim the races the same way. It takes a lot of adjusting to go from a fast SCY 200 to a fast LCM 200
I agree but I think a lot of us are rooting for Conger to step up in the 200 and get the US some intl medals, so wishful thinking on the 1:53 but he needs to do it sooner than later. Milak bout to change the game…
He’s gonna pop off in a year or two and do some crazy stuff I swear it
Ehh, that’s what we said about Chad when he went 1:52 in London, kenderesi after rio…have to see it first to believe it.
Just going off Caeleb Dressel, Conger was .8 slower in the 100 fly at NCAAs last year. Adding that to Dressel’s time at Worlds would be 50.6. Not an exact science, but both seem to be equally good at SCY and LCM.
I hope so, but those are very fast times.
You should find out this weekend
I love Will and I really hope he pops off soon.
He will be under 2:10 this weekend. He has completed the bulk of his missionary work and can finally start focusing on swimming full time again.
That’s awesome! I can’t wait to see him race his breaststroke is by far the prettiest to watch
Missionary work?
He is Mormon I believe.
me too – he has such a nice composure and acknowledges the High level of college swimming he is in .