Next Generation Pushing Men’s Breaststroke Events At USA Swimming Nationals

USA Swimming Nationals
Michael Andrew Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The men’s breaststroke events are shaping up to be one of the deepest and most competitive events at next week’s USA Swimming Nationals in Indianapolis, but one of the most interesting things to watch may not be who ends up on top of the podium, but who is right behind.

While Josh Prenot, Kevin Cordes, Will Licon, and others have been the standard bearers for the United States at the collegiate and international level, we have also seen a new crew of American breaststrokers rising with them who seemed poised to make the jump to the next level of competition.

Reece Whitley

Photo Courtesy: USA Swimming – Reece Whitley Setting a New National Age Group Record

One of those young rising stars is Reece Whitley, who just verbally committed to swim at Cal last week. The 17-year old broke both national independent high school short course yard breaststroke records this year, with his best long course times standing at 1:00.95 and 2:11.30. While he has been steadily improving in the short course pool, Whitley is due for a drop in long course – he hasn’t had a significant drop in either event since he was 15.

Whitley will go into the meet seeded seventh in the 200 with a 2:12.58, just behind fellow 17-year old Daniel Roy of King Aquatic Club. Roy is seeded with a 2:12.17, and was 2:12.84 just a couple months ago at the Mesa stop of the Arena Pro Swim Series. That is nearly three seconds faster than Whitley has been this year, so don’t be surprised to see Roy challenging for a spot on the podium given his strong in-season swim in Mesa.

A third 17-year old, Michael Andrew, is going into Nationals as the 9th seed in the 200 breast with a 2:13.90, but Andrew realistically has the best shot of all three to get himself on the World team. Andrew is seeded third in the 100 breast (59.82), well ahead of Whitley (10th) and Roy (16th). He also has a chance to make the Worlds Team in the 50 breast if he wins the event, which he admitted in Mesa has been a focus going into this summer.

As we head into a new Olympic quad don’t be surprised to see any of these young swimmers make a move towards the top of the podium as they work to take over as the next generation of American breaststrokers. You can view the entire psych sheet for next week’s Phillips 66 National Championships here.

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