Hannah Stevens, who just finished her freshman year at University of Missouri, dropped a stunning 1:00.66 in prelims of the women’s 100 meter backstroke at the Central Section Region VIII Championship Meet hosted by Columbia Swim Club. Stevens took .99 off her previous best time to lead the field by over 3 seconds.
Stevens finished the 2014 long course season with a lifetime-best 1:01.96 that she earned in prelims at Summer Nationals. She lowered that to 1:01.65 at the Columbia Swim Club Summer Invite in June, 2015, but had never been under 1:01 until this morning.
That swim ranks as the seventh-fastest performance by a US swimmer over the last two seasons. Had Stevens swum it at Nationals last year, it would have been the third-fastest time of the season and would have landed her a spot on the 2014-15 US National Team. Last season, only times from prelims, semis, and finals swum at 2014 Summer Nationals and 2014 Pan Pacific Championships were considered for selection to the National Team.
USA Swimming changed the criteria for selection to the 2015-16 National Team to include times achieved at any meet during the 2014-15 season: “The six athletes with the highest World Rankings in Olympic Events from the combined results of all USA Swimming or FINA sanctioned meets, including the BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series 2015 in Perth, Australia.”
Stevens’ performance, therefore, is eligible for consideration for the 2015-16 National Team even though she didn’t swim it at Nationals.
Hannah Stevens went a 1.0 0.04 in finals this evening. This girls on fire
Hannah Stevens just swam a 1.00.04 in the finals tonight in the 100 meter back!
Scare part is she is not tapered
Nice time drop