It seemed almost inevitable after his performances in the 100 breaststroke on Friday, but Reece Whitley has fulfilled the prophecy and broken his own National Age Group Record in the 200 yard breaststroke in prelims on Saturday at the Tom Dolan Invitational.
Whitley swam a 1:57.87, which improves upon the 1:58.39 that he did earlier this year, as the fastest time ever by a 13-14 year old.
The comparative splits:
- Whitley (old record) – 26.89 / 29.66 / 30.76 / 31.08 = 1:58.39
- Whitley (new record) – 26.61 / 29.60 / 30.34 / 31.32 = 1:57.87
As compared to the second-best breaststroker in age group history, Michael Andrew, the improvements in Whitley’s splitting is less predictable, but Whitley seems to have set himself up to finish a little quicker and improve this record again in finals.
On the broader spectrum, while both his 100 and 200 yard times are unparalleled for a swimmer at his age, Whitley would have to drop some more time in finals to put this swim on par with his prelims number that was almost an NCAA-scoring-worthy time.
That last 50. Damn if whitley can get that down to where it should be he could be 1:56 tonight.
Before the meet I expected 1.55 high/1.56 low for Mr Whitley in the 200 breast. He looks on the way to do it.
Can’t wait to see the final. He’s really fun to watch.
some interesting thoughts from Reece. worth a read.
http://reachforthewall.com/2014/12/12/reece-whitley-14-turns-heads-and-breaks-records-at-tom-dolan-invitational/
Whitley is amazing. Think he will get to 156 high tonight.
In other news from the meet –
Seliskar went a 141.7 200 fly this morning, exactly 2 tenths of a second off of Tom Shields’ NAG record. We could see that go tonight.
Bayer seemed disappointed after her 100 fly last night but she went a new best time in the 200 fly this morning of 155.8 and followed that up with a 22.9 50 free.
Cool for Miss Bayer. She isn’t a short course swimmer. She lacks power and has average turns and underwaters so far. It’s tough in the 100 fly in yards without that. Cool to see she rebounds in the 200, her best event.