Carson Foster Rip 3:38.79 in 400 IM at SMU Classic
One of the most talented individual medley swimmers in the world opened up his junior-year college season with a quick early-season time in the 400-yard IM. Racing in the always-elite field at the SMU Classic in Dallas, Texas junior Carson Foster swam a time of 3:38.79, by far the quickest time recorded so far in this nascent college season. Foster was exactly five seconds off his own best time of 3:33.79, which he recorded in prelims at last year’s NCAA Championships. This mark would have already been quick enough to qualify for the NCAA A-final last season, a race where Foster placed third behind U.S. Open-record-setter Hugo Gonzalez and Leon Marchand.
This race was Foster’s first competition swim of the 16-length medley race since those NCAA Championships, where Foster admitted that he put too much effort into his prelims swim before going much slower in the final. “I think my emotions kind of got the best of me that day,” Foster said in July. “I wanted to prove to everyone that I was better than my 1:40 (in the 200 IM) the day before. I definitely learned not to let let my emotions carry me to being stupid at a meet like that.”
Foster has been one of the most impressive young swimmers in the United States for years, but he faced doubts about his ability to perform in major finals before a huge breakout performance last spring, when he qualified for the U.S. World Championships team and then won silver medals in both the 400-meter IM and 200-meter IM at Worlds, finishing behind Marchand in both events. Foster also helped the U.S. men’s 800 free relay team win gold at Worlds, and less than one month later, he posted the country’s quickest time for 2022 in the 200-meter butterfly.
At SMU Classic, only one swimmer from each of the six competing teams (Texas, Texas A&M, Michigan, Louisville, Missouri, SMU) can race in an A-final, with another swimmer eligible for a B-final. Texas A&M’s Anze Fers Erzen finished behind Foster in the A-final in 3:44.42, while SMU’s Colin Feehery was third in 3:46.44, but the second-quickest mark of the day came from Jake Foster, Carson’s older brother, who swam a time of 3:41.97 for the Longhorns in the B-final. The elder Foster brother was fifth in the event at last year’s NCAAs.