Lilly King Hits Goal Of Closing 200 Breast Prelim Sub-30

2018 IU INVITATIONAL

• Thursday-Saturday, November 15-17th
• Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center, Bloomington, IN
• Short Course Yards
• Live Results

In this morning’s prelims at the IU Invitational in Bloomington, Indiana senior Lilly King took the top seed in the women’s 200 breast by almost two seconds in 2:07.45.

That wasn’t a surprise at all, but her splitting certainly raised a few eyebrows. Of all eight finalists, the American Record holder was the slowest through 150 yards (1:37.86), but then closed in 29.59, well over three seconds faster than anyone else in the field. As a point of reference, in King’s 100 breast win last night (where she swam the 3rd-fastest time ever), she closed in 30.03.

King had actually let her intentions known last night in an interview after her 100 breast, saying “my plan in the morning is I’m going to go really slow on the first 150 and then try and break 30 on the last 50”. Watch the interview below:

King goes on to say she’s aiming for a swim in the 2:03-2:04 range for finals. Last weekend she swam a time of 2:06.81 at the ACC vs Big Ten College Challenge, which had stood as the top time in the country but was overtaken on Friday by Sydney Pickrem (2:06.13) and Anna Belousova (2:06.26) of Texas A&M.

The three-time defending NCAA champion in both breaststroke events, King’s American Record in the 200 stands at 2:02.60 from NCAAs in March, while her fastest ever swim this early in the season was a 2:05.64 from the 2016 College Challenge. Last season at the Purdue Invite she was only a 2:10.99.