2023 CAVALIER INVITE
- February 3-5, 2023
- UVA Aquatic Center – Charlottesville, VA
- 25 Yards (SCY)
- Live Results: “2023 Cavalier Invitational” on MeetMobile
- Teams: UVA, George Washington, James Madison, Johns Hopkins, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Richmond, William & Mary
- originally published Feb 4th
In a three-person suited time trial at the 2023 Cavalier Invite, Virginia senior Kate Douglass broke the US Open and American record in the 200 breast for the third time in her career, going a 2:01.43. Prior to today, the record was 2:01.87, a time that Douglass swam this season at the 2022 Tennessee Invite.
NOTE: Official NCAA rules state that swims conducted in time trials do not count as NCAA records, so the swim is only an American and US Open record.
Douglass first began her assault on the 200 breast record books in March 2022, when she swam a 2:02.19 at NCAAs to break Lilly King‘s old US Open, American, and NCAA record time of 2:02.60. From NCAAs to now, Douglass has lowered the 200 breast record by over a second, and now has four of the fastest seven performances of all-time in the event.
All-Time Top Performances, Women’s 200-Yard Breast:
- Kate Douglass, Virginia — 2:01.43 (2023)
- Kate Douglass, Virginia — 2:01.87 (2022)
- Kate Douglass, Virginia — 2:02.19 (2022)
- Lilly King, Indiana — 2:02.60 (2018)
- Lilly King, Indianna — 2:02.90 (2019)
- Alex Walsh, Virginia — 2:03.02 (2022)
- Kate Douglass, Virginia — 2:03.14 (2022)
Compared to when she last broke the US Open record, Douglass has improved both on her front and back half. She was out 0.17 seconds faster than she was in November, and came home 0.27 seconds faster.
Comparative Splits:
| Kate Douglass, 2023 Cavalier Invite (Current US Open record) | Kate Douglass, 2022 Tennessee Invite (Former US Open Record) | Kate Douglass, 2022 NCAAs (Former US Open Record) | |
| 50m | 27.71 | 27.94 | 27.84 |
| 100m | 30.38 (58.59) | 30.82 (58.76) | 31.14 (58.98) |
| 150m | 31.53 | 31.49 | 31.56 |
| 200m | 31.31 (1:02.84) | 31.62 (1:03.11) | 31.65 (1:03.21) |
| Final Time | 2:01.43 | 2:01.87 | 2:02.19 |
Considering that Douglass set the US Open record in the 200 breast twice prior to championship season, she could do serious damage in the event come time for ACCs and NCAAs.
Why so many down votes in the comment section lauding Douglass? She just went a PB, during an era that she’s peaking, clearly. She swam 2:23 at worlds, stating quite clearly it was a sub par swim for her. I think she has yet to thrive LC, but for now she’s tearing it up in an event (the SCY 200 br) that has seen every single successful American female breaststroker try at for 4 years. And she’s destroying all their times. How can we quantify that? Idk. Let’s just enjoy it.
Must suck being in the ready room with Lilly King. I wonder if King tries to get into her head. She must be pissed that Kate took down her records in SCY.
Must suck to be you and be all negative on Lilly king smdh
why the daggers? King openly admits to doing that to her opponents. I’m not negative on her. She is the fastest in the world and she hates trump. That makes me a fan.
lilly king is genuinely the most sore loser and bad sport she must
She’s cool. She is probably a nice person. She talks appropriate shyt and doesnt hide it. I like the forwardness of it.
Mark my word:
Kate Douglass will win 200 breast in all world championships and Olympics in the next 10 years and she will eventually bring 200 breast WR down to 2:15
See it’s stuff like this that I can’t tell if it’s obvious trolling or if people actually believe this lol.
So it’s 2:15 now …
https://staging2.swimswam.com/kate-douglass-swims-201-43-200-breast-to-break-american-and-us-open-record-race-video/#comment-1152441
Correct.
I revised my prediction.
At this rate of improvement, I definitely see Kate Douglass swimming the W 200 BR and W 200 IM at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
The question is whether Alex Walsh will seriously train for the W 400 IM and attempt to secure a second event for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. Alex Walsh is not fast enough to beat Kaitlyn Dobler and Lydia Jacoby let alone Lilly King in the W 100 BR (LCM).
2022 USA Swimming International Team Trials
W 100 BR (LCM)
King – 1:05.67
Dobler – 1:06.19
Jacoby – 1:06.21
Walsh – 1:07.59
Furthermore, I seriously doubt Alex Walsh could beat Kate Douglass and/or Lilly King in the W 200 BR (LCM).
I think Kate Douglass is likely to make the team in both the 200 Breast and 200IM. But she’s not necessarily a lock for either. King and Lazor are both still dangerous (although Lazor didn’t have the best year last year) and Walsh and Hayes are both strong in the 2IM, with Hayes having the advantage of youth.
Walsh’s next two best events appear to be 100 breast and 400IM but I don’t see her making the team in either of those considering USA women are very strong in those events already.
Does she have any history with 400 IM? Can’t recall ever seeing results for her in that event.
Her PB is a 4:42 from 2020. Last year she would have needed a 4:37 to make the team, and in 2021 a 4:33.
She is hardly #13 in terms of comments or interest level
and who are you?
“Official NCAA rules state that swims conducted in time trials do not count as NCAA records, so the swim is only an American and US Open record” this is so dumb. Why can’t we have a title to say what the fastest ever yards time is? This is why I want FINA to recognize SCY, just so we can say “world record” when that’s what we mean instead of writing a whole sentence explaining why a swim is the fastest ever
US Open record basically does mean fastest ever. Nowhere else swims yards. FINA should not recognise SCY.
some of the fastest swimmers in the world would disagree with you. Mmkay?
Jake Mitchell swam the M 400 FR time trial at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Wave II and officially made the U.S. Olympic Team.
Very long glide to the finish. I thought she was going to chop and throw in an extra short stroke. King and others definitely would have done so. Douglass always prefers smooth and sometimes it costs her at the walls.
Seems like in short course it would be more available through repeated practice to gauge stroke length and maximize with full extended touch to the wall. More random at long course.
Wall entry doesn’t seem overly sophisticated in this sport. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. The other end of that, the underwaters, has improved exponentially in the decades I have followed.
Nailing walls in a short pool is significantly harder, what are you on about?
She has 5-6 strokes to get the timing right. The theoretical ideal might be like 5.5. That doesn’t mean 5 with a long glide is improvisation or unexpected. it means that 5 with a glide is faster than 6 with a short stroke.
Hilarious!
Complaining about the gold medalist in the W 200 BR at the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 meters) in Melbourne, Au. I remember the comments about “over Lilly King’s dead body”, as well.
I think Kate is shooting for that elusive individual Olympic gold medal more than records. She’s going to focus on LCM next year.
It’s probably going to be the 200 breaststroke or 200 IM.
Maybe less competition in the 200 breast.
Her 2:01.4 is in the 2:19 range. So she’s on track to be the best in the world in the LCM race.
The W 200 BR (Days 5 & 6) does not conflict with the W 200 IM (Days 7 & 8) on the 2024 Summer Olympics schedule.
https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/swimming-2024-paris-olympic-games
she has a great chance for gold in the 2 IM unless Summer Mac decides to swim it (not sure if 2 IM would conflict with Summer’s other races)!
Obvi- A Walsh could take it down too and may be the favorite. Those too are just so close.
The 2 IM fits perfectly into McIntosh’s program and would be her last event so she has nothing to lose by adding it.
Day 1 – 400 FR, 4×100 FR
Day 2 – 200 FR
Day 3 – 400 IM, 200 FR
Day 4 – Nothing
Day 5 – 200 FL
Day 6 – 200 FL, 4×200 FR
Day 7 – 200 IM
Day 8 – 200 IM
If she were to drop anything it’d probably be the 200 FR depending on how it develops between now and Paris.
She surely isn’t going to swim 5 events… I agree that it makes most sense to drop the 200 free both in terms of timetable and it’s her least likely gold at this point. However, you never really know. She may decide that Douglass, Walsh and McKeown (I’m not convinced McKeown will swim it in Paris) are too much to overcome.
I think she will go for the 200 IM.
It doesn’t make much sense for her to leave the final three days of the Olympics without any swims.
well if that’s the case, the UVA girls have their work cut out for them. Summer is just higher level.
Agree. Whilst she may pursue the 200free going forward past Paris; it currently looks the hardest race as regards likely rewards and is less friendly with regards to schedule.
400IM realistically looks to be hers and Zhang her only competition for 200fly. She looks the only viable competition to the Americans in 200IM but her upside looks as good as theirs. I think McKeown’s window of opportunity for this event was 2021 but has now closed and it’s open to debate as to whether she will continue to pursue it.
no way its worth for McKeown imo at this point. 2021 was a relatively weak year and would’ve been a great chance but I think theres too much competition at this point that putting energy into the IM is not worth the risk it poses to her backstroke events
I agree that her best chances at gold are in those two events. In the 50 free/100 fly she’s probably not a favourite to even make the team, and if she does she won’t be likely to medal. I assume she will swim the 100 free just for the relay opportunity but without plans to qualify individually.
I don’t agree that she is ‘on track to be the best in the world in LCM’ but she did do well in the 200 breast this year in LCM.
Kate Douglass does not rank among the Top 50 All-Time Performers in the W 50 FR (LCM). Kate Douglass has a much better chance to medal in the W 200 IM (LCM) than the W 50 FR (LCM) not with McKeon, Sjostrom, Blume, Wasick as the top entries.
So long as Huske, MacNeil, Yufei (or is it Zhang) remain relevant in the W 100 FL (LCM), forget about the podium in the aforementioned event.
Kate Douglass has to be in the conversation as one of the favorites in the W 200 BR (LCM) at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
You are obsessed with Douglass, it’s awkward.