Georgia’s Brittany MacLean swam a race for the history books earlier in the meet in the 500 free, and that wasn’t even her best swim of the meet.
On Saturday evening, in the final heat of the timed-final 1650 free, Brittany MacLean, with nobody even in the same screen as her, swam to a 15:27.84 in the women’s 1650 free.
That broke the standing NCAA Record in the 1650 free that had belonged to UNC’s Stephanie Peacock from the mid-season Ohio State Invite in the 2012-2013 season at 15:37.06. It also broke the NCAA Championship Record of 15:38.79, set at the 2012 NCAA Championships, also by Peacock, by 11 seconds. Peacock has now missed this race at two-straight NCAA Championships with health issues, otherwise this could have been an all-time great mile dual.
Katie Ledecky still holds the all-time best in this event in 1650.
MacLean also broke Peacock’s 1000 NCAA Record (that event isn’t swum at nationals) by five seconds on her split – swimming 9:23.78.
That swim by MacLean is the third-fastest 1650 freestyle swim of all-time, behind only Ledecky and Katie Hoff. That’s 12 seconds faster than where the NCAA Record sat until 2012, where Janet Evans had the mark for 22 years. How badly it’s been broken shows just how ripe women’s distance swimming was for a next great wave of stars.
Ledecky’s record is 15:15.17.
I am not even a Georgia fan (I was rooting for Cal) and I think she should have gotten the nod for Swimmer of the Meet. Two huge NCAA records and 4th in her 3rd outweigh’s Dirado’s no-record 1st/1st/2nd in my opinion. Especially if Cordes can win the Men’s swimmer of the meet last year with no 3rd event.
It seems I received faulty information from another undisclosed college swimming website (*cough) but I’m glad to see MacLean did win SoM.
Congrats Britt. Its not the size of the Dawg in the fight ……