Cullen Jones Breaks Meet Record in 50 Fly at Nationals

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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33-year-old veteran Cullen Jones broke Eugene Godsoe’s Nationals meet record in the 50 fly on Wednesday morning at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships. Jones paced the heats with a 23.26 to break Godsoe’s record of 23.29. Jones’ time puts him third in the world for 2017 behind Great Britain’s Ben Proud (22.80) and Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov (23.05).

Jones is also not far off of Bryan Lundquist’s American Record of 22.91 from 2009.

Jones leads a stacked A-final with Caeleb Dressel (23.33), Michael Andrew (23.51), Tim Phillips (23.62), Giles Smith (23.71), Justin Lynch (23.87), Tom Shields (23.90) and Ryan Held (23.93).

The winner does not automatically qualify for Budapest in the 50 stroke events. If the winning swimmer qualifies in another event, then they can elect to swim the 50 in Budapest. You can read the official qualification rules here. Jones would have to do well in the 50 free on Saturday, something he looks like he is in much better shape for than some thought before the meet.

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