Penn distance swimmer Chris Swanson established him self as one of the best Ivy League swimmers in the last decade last season when he swam a 14:49.63 in the 1650 free at the 2014 NCAA Championship meet to finish in 9th place.
This season, he’s out to establish himself as one of the best milers of any conference in the country after an impressive 14:43.87 on the first night of the 2014 Total Performance Invite hosted by Kenyon.
That swim broke his own Penn Record, and while that’s a few seconds shy of the all-time Ivy League best of 14:39.71 done by Harvard’s John Cole in 2002 and is the 23rd-fastest of all time among American men.
Swanson’s meteoric rise in this event is made all-the-more impressive given that coming out of high school, he had only swum this race twice officially in his career, and was never better than a 16:24. He was more of a 200/500 middle-distance freestyler when he committed to Penn, with some decent times in the 1000 giving some indication of his potential.
The story for the junior (and a young junior at that) is similar to the one of former Michigan NCAA mile champion Connor Jaeger, who out of high school was a middle-distance freestyler but bloomed into one of the best milers in NCAA history.
A full recap of the Total Performance Invite will come later this weekend.
Day 1 results here.
That’s awesome!!
I was on Florida’s zone team with Chris like 5 years ago…really nice kid and stoked to see him killing it in college now.
The league occasionally publishes conference records, and his swim actually doesn’t break it. The record is a 14:39.71 by Harvard’s John Cole in 2002.
iLikePsych – good find. I see Cole’s time now. Will amend.
That is damn impressive. I love the resurgence of American men’s distance swimming that’s going on.