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Men’s 100 breast (Devon Nowicki)
Many “Michiganders” seem to be making appearances at tonight’s final session on day four of the 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships. From Schmitt to Tucker and others, Devon Nowicki adds onto that list that as he takes home a gold medal in the men’s 100 breast. The Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics Swimmer was only one of two men to go under a minute in the event. Splitting a strong 27.75 in the first 50, Nowicki brought it home with a time of 59.69.
The other individual who broke a minute in the event was the original top seed going into finals, Craig Benson. Native to Great Britain, Benson also proved to be a strong competitor in the men’s 200 breast at this years nationals as he finished in fifth place in that event. Benson hit the wall at 59.79, just ten hundredths of a second behind Nowicki.
Taking home bronze in the event was your 2019 national champion in the men’s 200 breast, Reece Whitley. The Cal-Berkeley swimmer is a notorious NCAA Division I breaststroker who placed within the top eight at this past years collegiate nationals. Whitley dropped one spot below his original seed going into finals, but still shaved some time off of his prelim swim posting a final time of 1:00.05.
French swimmer, Theo Bussiere swam a time of 1:00.08, finishing in fourth place right behind Whitley.
Another international swimmer in the A final was Australian, Daniel Cave, who finished in fifth with a time of 1:00.30. Cave maintained his fifth place seed from his prelims swim and shaved some time off as well.
Fellow Australian teammate, Samuel Willamson, was right behind Cave finishing in sixth place with a time of 1:00.61.
Only two hundredths of a second separated seventh place finisher, Caspar Corbeau from eighth place finisher, Trent Pellini. Dutch swimmer Corbeau had a slower first 50 split than Pellini, but came home faster with a time of 1:00.68, just ahead of Pellini who finished at 1:00.70.
Before competitors entered the pool for the A final, ninth place finisher who won the B final was Ian Finnerty with a time of 1:00.15.
