{"id":521957,"date":"2023-02-06T05:42:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T12:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=521957"},"modified":"2023-02-06T05:42:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T12:42:25","slug":"after-ncaa-record-leon-marchand-has-sights-set-on-ncaa-team-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/after-ncaa-record-leon-marchand-has-sights-set-on-ncaa-team-title\/","title":{"rendered":"After NCAA Record, Leon Marchand Has Sights Set on NCAA Team Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

After NCAA Record, Leon Marchand Has Sights Set on NCAA Team Title<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leon Marchand<\/strong> is still relatively new to NCAA swimming, but he already knows the drill when it comes to breaking NCAA records. Enough that he can pinpoint the differences in, say, last year\u2019s mark at NCAAs in the 200 individual medley<\/a> and last month\u2019s record in the 400 IM in Tempe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rarity of a dual-meet record, the French Olympian knows, is special. His reaction at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center reflected that emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (the 200 IM) was different because I was at NCAAs and I was in front of many people from different schools,\u201d Marchand said Wednesday on a Zoom call. \u201cBut this year, it was very fun because we were against the defending champion Cal and we were at home, so my family was in that stands. We packed the house, so that was pretty cool, and my teammates were all on deck, and we are a pretty big team, about 50 swimmers, so it was pretty fun to do it here. I was very surprised by the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s hard not to be surprised by the time, a 3:31.84 that was a full second quicker than the time used by Cal\u2019s Hugo Gonzalez<\/strong> to win the event at NCAAs last year. But it\u2019s also becoming increasingly difficult to be surprised by anything that Marchand does in the pool these days. He\u2019s taken to the college format, with its frequent racing and the short-course yards format so foreign to European swimmers, and blossomed.<\/p>\n

When Arizona State coach Bob Bowman<\/strong> starts using clauses about Marchand\u2019s mentality being \u201cas good as anybody I\u2019ve ever coached,\u201d it doesn\u2019t take much to start drawing comparisons to former pupils.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has what all high performers have, which is the ability to block everything out at the critical moment and focus on the task at hand,\u201d Bowman said. \u201c\u2026 He\u2019s very good at that, as good as anybody I\u2019ve ever coached at that, to be honest. He\u2019s also a student of the sport and is always learning how to swim his races better and is very aware of how he swims the races. When he comes out after a race, I don\u2019t have to tell him what he did wrong; he already knows. I can help him figure out how we can correct it that. In general, he\u2019s very aware of what\u2019s going on, and that allows him to make changes quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n