The Dominance Series Sponsored by SwimSpray, a SwimSwam partner.
For swim fans young and old following the competitions at men’s NCAA’s, this year’s phenomenal performances did not disappoint. There were multiple swims that were simply awesome. Times were swum that made our jaws drop-and if you didn’t see them with your own eyes you may not actually believe the times were possible.
According to the Most Dominant Formula, one race race stood out as being the most dominant of the entire meet…Ryan Murphy‘s 100 back scored 4.21 dominance points over the other competitors. To win by that margin of victory at that high a level of competition definitely merits the title of “Most Dominant“.
A favorable runner-up in this most dominant category was Caeleb Dressel‘s 50 free victory which scored 3.52 dominance points. To have that margin of victory over his field in the shortest race makes his swim a very close second.
Congrats again to Ryan for being “The Dominator” of the men’s 2016 NCAA Championships!
Ahh, now I see where that Dominating reference touched a chord with you! Very COOL!
I fee that licon’s 200 breast swim is being way too under-valued. He broke an american record, which only 2 years ago, no swimmer could come within 3 seconds of! Not only was cordes’ record considered UNTOUCHABLE, but licon also broke that record by half a second, close to skipping 1:48! I’m really surprised that his 200 breast swim isnt held in the same regard as the other big swims of the meet, but i guess it’s because he hasnt hit that level of superstardom that the other three swimmers have. Hopefully, he’ll use this as fuel to light up the pool this summer.
no one cares about breast stroke! They never did. When have you ever heard someone say, “wow, let’s check out this breast stroke race!” lmao
I’ll throw out one more: The Texas 200 Fly.
Schooling actually had one of the Least Dominant Performances, in that he barely won by 0.09. But he and Jack Conger were a twin-headed hydra of fury. Against the US Open Record – aka the scy world record – going into the meet, (t)he(y) took it from 1:39.31 to 1:37.97 in one swim. I always thought Phelps had a 1:38 in him, but Schooling just skipped 1:38 altogether.
If we are looking at a Dominating The Record Books, these were the most dominant single swims:
1.37 Schooling 200 fly
1.33 Murphy 100 bk (not counting relay)
1.30 Conger 200 fly
1.09 Murphy 200 Bk
0.82… Read more »
Why not just say Murphy won by 4.21%?
That 100 back leadoff was the most shocking swim for me since Freddy B’s 50 free of 18.7 when nobody had been under 19 before.
Just curious, what was the score for Townley Haas’ 200 Free swim?
1.19.
The difference is Koski swam a really fast 2nd place (1:31 would have won it almost every other year).
Ryan Murphy won the 100 back by almost two FULL seconds.
I’ll throw my hat into the ring and say Townley’s 200 was the BEST swim of the meet. Not necessarily the most dominate (as Tea pointed out), but taking down a 10 year old record and doing something so many great ones have tried – and failed – to do deserves some recognition. And his turns are almost as bad as mine, so that bodes well for the long course season too 😀
I think you’re right that the quality of that record is huge. 1:31.2 was SO out-of-the-blue fast at that time. Guys like Phelps, Lochte, PVK were hitting their prime, and Biondi’s 1:33.0 from the 80s had only been broken the year before. Even Simon Burnett never swam within a second of that time again. Even the freak suits couldn’t touch it. HUGE.
IF Caeleb Dressel was ~18.8 at SECs, smashing a quarter second off Cielo’s record would have been even more amazing. He had already given himself such high expectations, we forget that 18.20 is just ABSURD.
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed his turns, it looks like he doesn’t even try to tuck and pushes with nothing but his ankles off the wall. Just underlines how amazing his actual stroke is, and how high his ceiling could be if he got his turns to the elite level of his stroke.
I think he will be the one to break the 1:30 barrier.