14-year-old Reece Whitley has taken another chunk off the 13-14 National Age Group record in the 100 breast, going 53.06 in the final after first breaking the mark in prelims.
Whitley, who had been 55.0 prior to this meet, broke the 55- and 54-second barriers in one fell swoop this morning, going 53.84. But at night, he dropped another eight tenths to put the record right on the cusp of a 52-second swim.
Whitley was faster in both the front and back half at night, and by similar margins in each. Here’s a splits comparison from his prelims record-breaking swim to his finals one:
- Prelims: 25.72/28.12 – 53.84
- Finals: 25.30/27.76 – 53.06
Whitley is an imposing presence at age 14, standing at least 6’6″.* He’s one of several breaststrokers torching the record books in their respective age groups – one year older than Whitley is Michael Andrew, who held this record before Whitley did. Whitley will age up next month and join Andrew in the 15-16 division. Meanwhile 12-year-old Ethan Dang has been tearing up the breaststroke NAGs one age group down – Dang just broke Whitley’s 11-12 record in the 100 breast just last weekend.
Whitley swims for Penn Charter Aquatic Club. We profiled his training earlier this year, and you can read that piece here.
*Whitley’s coach, Chrystal Keelan, told us Whitley was 6’6″ back in June. Various commenters have speculated that Whitley is as tall as 6’8″, which is possible, as Keelan suggested the 14-year-old could still be growing to his full height.
Also notable from last night- 12 year old Ryan Catron 54.39 100 back…1:56.81 in the 200 on Thursday night. Real talent to watch.
Since there’s no dedicated page for this meet, I’ll post here. Andrew Seliskar went 1:41.72 this morning in the 200 fly. That’s a personal best for him, and second all time in the 17-18 age group, tied with Michael Phelps, and .20 behind Tom Shields. Good chance of a NAG tonight. Based on his times in Toronto last week, I wouldn’t be surprised if goes under 1:41 tonight, although he is also swimming the 200 breast and 500 free this morning.
In other news…1:41.72 200 fly from Andrew Seliskar in this morning’s prelims!!!! NAG record tonight?..
Haha, guess you posted as I was still typing. 🙂
😉 they really need a dedicated page to TDI
Impressive swim !!! The fastest behind Whitley was 6 seconds behind ! this tells all about that fantastic swim . Future big talent in the making , for sure .
Ok. I try to post the link of the race video but I doubt it will remain for a long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWmGZoxomIs
I’ve tried. 🙂
This is exciting. Where is the video?
I can’t post the video on swimswam. It will be removed very quickly.
You can watch all races live and on demand on a rival website that I can’t name here.
Incredible! Hope someone got a video of this.
BOBO GIGI – did you happen to catch Reese’s transition from back to breast tonight in that 400IM? It was downright UGLY from my angle. I was afraid he completely screwed up his chances to drop time. He sure made up for it, though. I want to know how tall he is and how much he weighs. He is ENORMOUS!!! And only 14??????? Move over Phelps!!!
He is only 6’6 !!!!