Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

As records tumbled at YMCA Nationals over the weekend, I felt a little bit wistful. A sentimental part of me loves old records. An old record can remind you of a swimmer who later went on to great fame and where they started, or it can leave you curious why it seems you never heard from them again. In this post, I'll review the records broken by swimmers at Y Nats and last weekend's NCAA meet as well as the stories of the swimmers who saw their longstanding records fall.

In the 100 free, Dod Wales lost his record to Upper Main Line's Evan Reed. Wales' record had stood since 1995. He would go on to swim at Stanford, garnering All-American status in relays and winning the 100 butterfly at the NCAA Championships in 1999. Wales would come up agonizingly short of making the Olympic team in 2000 when he finished third in the 100 butterfly. Dod's father, Ross Wales, had won a gold medal in 100 butterfly at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. His training to make the 2000 Olympic team is chronicled in Gold in The Water by P.H. Mullen.

At men's NCAA's, the oldest record on the books fell on the final day. Melvin Stewart's 200 butterfly record, which had stood since 1991, fell to Gil Stovall. If you want to read what Mel thought about it, check out his own post on the subject at swimnetwork. If Gil ends his career with the same decoration as Melvin Steward, he would no doubt be enthused. Stewart went on to become world record holder in the 200 butterfly and Olympic champion in that event. Mel now works as a journalist/blogger, an admirable occupation.

Still, I wanted to pay tribute as well to some longstanding records that were not broken this year. Sometimes records get a life of their own and seemingly hang on by a thread forever. For instance, Chris Thompson's 1650 record has shown a lot of resiliency this year. When Sebastian Roualt came up .24 short of the record at NCAA's this year, it marked the third time in the past year the record has been only a few tenth's away from being broken. It began last year when Larsen Jensen won NCAA's with a time that was .08 off and then earlier this year Erik Vendt was also just slightly off the pace.

Thompson's record, only 7 years old, still feels like its been around for an eternity. After all, with Melvin Stewart's record falling, it becomes the oldest NCAA record on the books. Many of the records that stood when Thompson set his have become seemingly obsolete at NCAA's. For instance, Matt Biondi would nearly have missed finaling with his longstanding NCAA 200 free record of 1:33.03.

Records, as they say, were meant to be broken. Still, I always have a tinge of sentimental attachment to old records. They remind me of performances that once amazed me.