2024 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 27-30, 2024
- IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Central
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- Live Results
Cal’s Liam Bell became the fastest man in history in the 100 breast last night, clocking a 49.53. This also makes him the 3rd man to break the 50-second barrier. Last summer, Bell took off swimming almost completely, swimming only once or twice a week and not really having a competition goal in mind at all.
However, he made his gains in the weight room, building a ton of strength and using the college season to learn how to manage that strength in the pool.
I think Bell is the only guy college swimmer that has posted sub-50 seconds in all four 100s. (free, breast, back, butterfly).
This is interesting. Swimswam confirmed that Bell is the only NCAA swimmer to go sub-50 seconds in all 4 100s.
Has anyone seen Liam Bells lifted tundra? It wasn’t lifted due to the uneven roads of Berkeley, rather he put on so much weight that his suspension simply could not handle it… well deserved title win
Reminds me of how Dare Rose took a summer off in 2022 to focus on an internship and then had a massive 2023. There may be something too this strategy.
Anecdotally I cross trained with running (mid distance), running (sprinting), and lifting for a summer each (0 days swimming). I was a mediocre swimmer before and had marginal improvements. I walked on a low tier D3 team for fun. After adopting this strat in college I peaked at 3rd in D3.
My coach was shocked when I, a huge taper swimmer, dropped a PR in my first deul meet in the 100 BR after my first summer doing this.
I did notice that doing the same type of cross training a second time had only marginal gains.
It’s a darn good thing he left Alabama and transferred to Cal when he did. There is absolutely no way he would have done this if he had stayed there. Plus, I think a diploma from Cal is going to be far more respected than that from Alabama.
So happy for him!
I agree with everything except the last sentence. It’s quite a shallow take. We shouldn’t undermine the value of a diploma simply because of a school’s academic ranking which, at the end of the day, is a function of the research output. There is so much that comprises the college experience, it’s silly to encourage kids to filter their aspirations simply due to academic ranking or by the perceived value of a diploma, especially at the undergraduate level where you are quite literally just scratching the surface of whatever subject you are studying.
Full disclosure, I graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
Cal very clearly was the right choice for Bell. But Bama is a great school and has graduated fantastic swimmers and scholars. Look at his Bama roommate who was and is a blazing fast breaststroker, perfect mcat score and scholarship med student at NYU. Not too bad!!
An off the cuff, unscientific sampling of recent breaststroke swimmers of two sized: Jacked and Not.
Is it necessary to be Jacked to be a top SCY or LCM 100 breaststroker?
JACKED
Bell
Finnerty
McHugh
Nichols
Vissering
NOT
Corbeau
Licon
Cordes
SCY
Bell 49.5 [J]
Finnerty 49.6 [J]
McHugh 49.9 [J]
Cordes 50.0 [N]
Vissering 50.3 [J]
Corbeau 50.5 [N]
Licon 50.6 [N]
Nichols [50.8]
LCM
Cordes 58.6 [N]
Corbeau 59.2 [N]
Nichols 59.4 [J]
McHugh 59.6 [J]
Finnerty 1.00.1 [J]
Licon 1.00.3 [N]
Vissering 1.00.9 [J]
Bell 1.01.1 [J]
Conclusion: Probably doesn’t matter for 100 SCY/LCM.
i feel like nichols has the same build as corbeau… which isn’t a bad thing i just wouldn’t say jacked
Clearly being jacked helps for scy, benzing is a monster of a human built like a fridge, swam pretty well last night. However LCM the bigger guys are doing well Peaty, Haiyang, Fink
SCY breaststrokers have always been pretty beefy, but it seems like they’re starting to figure it out for LCM. Height is obviously also a very important factor for leverages, but if you don’t have the height it seems like packing on the muscle might be a good alternative.
GOING BACK TO THE 1960S WHEN THE CURRENT VERSION OF BR BEGAN TO EVOLVE, DOC COUNSILMAN AND CHET JASTREMSKI REDESIGNED THE STROKE TOTALLY AROUND CHET’S UPPER BODY STRENGTH, AND THE RESULTS WERE EXCEPTIONAL. CHET ALONE TOOK THE WR FROM 1:11 IN EARLY ’61 TO 1:07 A YEAR LATER AS HE MASTERED THE TECHNIQUE WITH DOC. YOU COULD ARGUE THAT CURRENT BRS ARE SIMPLY CONTINUING THAT TREND, NOW OVER 50 YEARS OLD, LIAM MORE THAN ALMOST ANYONE TO DATE. THE CHANGES IN THE KICK, RULES, UNDERWATERS, AND RELATED CHANGES HAVE BOTH ACCELERATED AND FACILITATED THE SPEED INCREASE.
OK THAT MAKES SENSE
Uhh how is Cordes in the non-jacked category? Have you seen how thick his neck is?
Cordes isn’t jacked????
Sounds like the Carsten Vissering training plan.
The man can do whatever he wants.
Finding the balance of internships and summer work experience on top of training as a top athlete is difficult to do especially with where most athletes want their professional careers to be following their time as a collegiate athlete.
If he wants to train and race at Trials, I don’t think anyone in that heat would take seeing his name in the final lightly.
Congrats Liam! So proud of the athlete and the man you’ve become.