Swim of the Week: Caspar Corbeau Puts Up 50.79 100 Breast At Minnesota Invite

Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.

There was no shortage of noteworthy performances last weekend, including Kelsi Dahlia setting a new world record at the ISL Final, Katie Ledecky lighting up the US Open with four victories and Thomas Heilman setting numerous National Age Group Records.

But over at the Minnesota Invite, University of Texas junior Caspar Corbeau was among the swimmers making some noise in a meet that featured some of the best teams in the nation.

Corbeau was matched up with reigning national champ Max McHugh of Minnesota in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, along with Cal’s Reece Whitley, who was the fastest swimmer in the NCAA last season in the 200.

Entering the meet, Corbeau’s best time in the 100 breast was set at the 2019 Minnesota Invite in 51.46, and last season, he went 51.62 three separate times, ultimately placing sixth at NCAAs. McHugh won in a time of 50.18, while Whitley took third in 51.03.

At this year’s Minnesota Invite, in a matchup billed to be McHugh v. Whitley, Corbeau put up the best swims of his career.

In the 100 breast, he established a new best time in the prelims (51.07) before cracking the 51-second barrier for the first time in the final, clocking 50.79 to take out McHugh (51.07) and Whitley (51.22) and rank first in the nation this season.

With the three swimmers relatively even at the final turn, Corbeau accelerated over the final yards to earn the win. Watch the race below:

A Dutch native that competed at the Olympic Games this past summer, Corbeau also topped both McHugh and Whitley in the 200 breast, hitting a best time of 1:50.81 which ranks second in the NCAA (behind Penn’s Matt Fallon, 1:49.71).

Corbeau also set a PB in the 200 IM, clocking 1:41.62 to take second to Cal’s Destin Lasco (1:41.53), and recorded breaststroke splits of 23.31 and 50.58 on Texas’ 200 and 400 medley relays, respectively.