Kate Douglass Becomes Second-Fastest Woman in History in 200 Breaststroke at Cavalier Invite
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Virginia third-year Kate Douglass was the bronze medalist in the 200-meter IM at the Tokyo Olympics, but she is skilled in a wide variety of other strokes and distances. At the NCAA Championships last season, Douglass was the national champion in the 50 free and the second-place finisher in the 100 fly and 100 free while skipping the 200 IM (which teammate Alex Walsh won).
So far this season, Douglass has shown impressive form in the 200 breaststroke, with a midseason performance of 2:03.58 that made her the fourth-fastest performer in history and surpassed Sophie Hansson’s winning mark from last year’s NCAAs. On Saturday morning, she lowered that time even further in a time trial at the Cavalier Invitational. Douglass swam a 2:03.14 to pass Kierra Smith and Bethany Galat on the all-time list, and she only missed the American record by a half-second. The only swimmer to ever swim faster than Douglass is Lilly King, a four-time NCAA champion in the event from 2016-2019, and King’s American record stands at 2:02.60.
With more than two weeks to go until the ACC Championships and more than a month until the NCAA Championships, Douglass could certainly take a run at King’s record — if she chooses to swim the 200 breast. Shortly after her impressive midseason swim, Douglass said, “I didn’t swim the 200 breast (at NCAAs last year) because I definitely find it easier to train for the 50 free and 100 fly instead of adding in the breaststroke training.” She added that “it’s not impossible to train for both the 50 free and the 200 breast at the same time, but that’s definitely something I think about when making that decision.”
Douglass would certainly be the national-title favorite if she chose to swim the 200 breast as her time Saturday ranks 1.5 seconds ahead of the next-fastest swimmer in the country this season (Anna Elendt at 2:04.69), while her other possible event that day, the 100 free, sets up as a tough battle against Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil and Stanford’s Torri Huske.
In other events at the Cavalier Invitational, the Virginia men blasted a 1:16.71 in the 200 freestyle relay for the country’s sixth-fastest time. That relay included Matt Brownstead, Matt King, Connor Boyle and August Lamb, with King chipping in the fastest split at 18.93. Meanwhile, Saturday morning’s prelims also featured Walsh making a rare appearance in the 100 breaststroke, where she swam a 58.36 for the ninth-fastest time in the country.
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