And Another One Gone…

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by Slartibartfast

UPDATE:  I predict that Tom Dolan’s NCAA, American and US Open record in the 400 IM will fall tonight (3/24) to Ryan Lochte.  He’s just qualified 2nd for the finals.

Not much time to post details, but NCAA men’s swimming began today and the records, they are a fallin’.  Peter Vanderkaay of Michigan wiped Tom Dolan’s eleven-year-old American Record in the 500 freestyle off  the board, clocking in at 4:08.60.

Next, if you’ll recall one of my few recent posts, I predicted that Ryan Lochte would bring it in the NCAA championship meets.  Here’s the headliner:

Men’s NCAA Div I. Championships, Finals: Ryan Lochte Destroys Phelps’ American Record in the 200 Individual Medley — March 23, 2006

ATLANTA, Ga. March 23. THE 200 IM figured to be an exciting race …and it lived up to expectations.

Actually, it was two races in one: Ryan Lochte vs. Michael Phelps’ American record (1:41.30); and the rest of the superb field battling for second place.

Lochte was ahead of Phelps’ pace the entire way as Phelps, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Michigan cheered him on.

At the end of the fly, Lochte’s margin was a scant 3-hundredths of a second, 22.19 to 22.22. But he moved well ahead of Phelps’ pace on the backstroke with an incredible backstroke split of 24.25. Turning at the halfway mark, he was 99-hundredths of a second up on Phelps.

But the breaststroke is Lochte’s weak stroke, while Phelps has a strong breaststroke.

No matter. The Florida senior extended his margin to 1.12 seconds with a 29.81 second split. Did I say that was his “weak” stroke?

With the packed crowd cheering him on, Lochte powered home in 24.30 to clock an amazing 1:40.55, destroying Phelps’ American record and his own NCAA mark (1:41.71), set last year.

In the other race, Arizona’s Adam Ritter clocked 1:44.20 to lead four swimmers with 1:44s to the wall. Auburn’s Eric Shanteau and James Wike were third and fourth while Arizona’s Dave Rollins was fifth. Lochte’s Florida teammate, freshman Brad Alley, finished sixth.

My first, second and third responses on reading this were not posting-rules compliant, so to quote Peter Boyle: Holy crap.  Eight-tenths of a second over Michael Phelps…that’s something to tell your grandkids about.

Then, not to make too boring a night of it, Lochte does this:

Men’s NCAA Div I. Championships, Finals: Arizona Triumphs in the 400 Medley Relay as Lochte Notches His Second American Record of the Night — March 23, 2006

ATLANTA, Ga. March 23. ON paper, the 400 yard medley relay figured to pit top qualifier Arizona against Northwestern – which has the fastest first three-quarters of this event in the field – and the usual suspects: Florida, Auburn and defending champion Stanford. And that’s the way it played out.

Florida took the lead on the backstroke on the strength of Ryan Lochte’s American record 44.60 (split: 21.52), which erased Neil Walker’s 44.92. Northwestern took over the lead when Mike Alexandrov split 52.49 for the breaststroke.

So, all in a night’s work: destroy Michael Phelps‘ 200 IM record, then destroy Neil Walker’s 100 backstroke record leading off the 400 medley relay.

That is all.  If this doesn’t give you goosebumps, nothing in swimming ever will.

16 thoughts on “And Another One Gone…”

  1. I get goosebumps at the HS meets when someone edges out the competition a hundredth or two. But this? More than a second? Pretty staggering. Awesome.

  2. “If this doesn’t give you goosebumps nothing in swimming ever will.”
    Whaddya mean? My German grandfather throwing me, at 4 years of age, off the side of the pool into the deep end, and later the Austrian officer (complete with accent) at the military academy barking insults at me the 13 year old on that cold day of swimming the required mile in the freezing lake with white caps, and my wife the scuba diver forcing me to snorkel in the fifty feet of swift current off the coast of Mexico (O.K., that wasn’t so bad) has given my goosebumps … goosebumps.
    As in terror. I can hardly float with the 30 extra pounds of goosebumps. If it wasn’t for all those grizzly bears on land, I’d never go in the water.

  4. Thullen’s remarks remind me of a story that was on TV (CNN international?) where they were getting kids in Australia to swim faster by having them start and they releasing a juvenile croc. In trying to find the story, I found this humorous one and this not so humorous. Ahh, those Aussies.

  5. “If this doesn’t give you goosebumps, nothing in swimming ever will.”
    Clearly, you have different fantasies than I do.

  7. “If this doesn’t give you goosebumps, nothing in swimming ever will.”
    Ah yes, the goosebumps, the shakes, the turning blue, the nausea and headaches.
    Hope my kids get my wife’s swimming genes.

  8. Yeah, that is simply outstanding. What will is talking about is Simon Burnett’s obliteration of the NCAA record in the 200 free, by 1.02 seconds. Also wiped Matt Biondi’s 19-year-old meet record from the books.
    BTW Ryan Lochte did in fact break Tom Dolan’s 11-year-old 400 IM record tonight, if only by three hundredths of a second.

  10. What’s baffling is the meet results have Arizona’s 800 free relay posted as an American record, which is not possible considering that at least two of the four members of the relay are not American.

  13. American records vs. World records. I think it depends if the team competes under the aegis of an American entity. So even if the team had all four members as non-American, it would still be an American record.

  14. American records vs. World records. I think it depends if the team competes under the aegis of an American entity. So even if the team had all four members as non-American, it would still be an American record.

    That’d be a viable theory if there were one single holder of any American record, relay or otherwise, that was not a US citizen.
    Wait a bit and see if Arizona’s relay records stand as American records; I’d bet cash that they don’t. They bested the American record, but they won’t get recorded that way.

  15. That’d be a viable theory if there were one single holder of any American record, relay or otherwise, that was not a US citizen.
    But wouldn’t that unfairly penalize the two Americans on the team? Also, since naturalization is possible, does that mean that when someone who holds world records becomes an American citizen, they are automatically awarded the American records?
    I also suspect that each governing body might have slightly different rules for covering this. All of the examples I found were from track and field, so I’m just guessing.

  16. But wouldn’t that unfairly penalize the two Americans on the team?

    No, not if the rule were clear to begin with.
    Here’s a few examples:
    The current NCAA record for the 200 medley relay is held by the University of California. The American record is held by Stanford; the time is slower than the NCAA record. Auburn, in the finals, recorded a time faster than the American record but were not awarded the American record because Cesar Cielo, a member of the relay team, is a citizen of Brazil, and because George Bovell, another member, is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. If the team had broken the NCAA record, they’d have justly been awarded it until someone else beat that time.
    The current NCAA record in the 100 free is held by Duje Draganja, a citizen of Croatia, while the American record is held by Anthony Ervin at a slightly slower time.
    Australia holds the World and US Open records (same time, same day) for the women’s 400 meter medley relay, while the American record is held by a relay team composed of Americans only.
    US Open requires, apparently, that the record be set inside of the US, but there’s no restrictions on who sets the record.
    Here‘s the rules book for this year; although the relay rule isn’t explicitly stated, the American record rule is: (p49)”May be established only by United States citizens eligible to compete under and achieving an official time in accordance with USA Swimming rules.”

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