Luke Hobson Crushes 500 Free NAG Record Again, Breaks 4:10 in Race with Brooks Fail at Minnesota Invite
The star of the Minnesota Invitational thus far has been Texas freshman Luke Hobson, a Reno-native who owned best times of 1:35 in the 200 free and 4:16 in the 500 free prior to his first midseason meet with the Longhorns. However, through two days in Minneapolis, Hobson has made a huge impact on the college swimming world so far. Wednesday evening, Hobson split 1:31.34 on Texas’ 800 free relay (the B-relay), and in Thursday’s prelims, he swam a 4:12.12 in the 500 free to clip two tenths off the 17-18 National Age Group record that belonged to the legendary Michael Phelps.
Then, in the 500 free final, Hobson chopped two more seconds off his best time while outdueling last year’s third-place finisher at the NCAA championships, Arizona’s Brooks Fail. Hobson swam a time of 4:09.72, a time that only three swimmers (Jake Magahey, Kieran Smith and Fail) surpassed at last year’s NCAA Championships, while Fail finished just behind in 4:10.32. Hobson led by more than two seconds with 100 meters to go, and he held on as Fail finished with a blistering split of 48.88 on the final four lengths.
Here are the splits from the top two swimmers in the final:
1 Hobson, Luke FR Texas 4:12.12 4:09.72
r:+0.81 22.75 47.52 (24.77)
1:12.73 (25.21) 1:38.00 (25.27)
2:03.35 (25.35) 2:28.54 (25.19)
2:53.84 (25.30) 3:19.29 (25.45)
3:45.03 (25.74) 4:09.72 (24.69)
2 Fail, Brooks Arizona 4:14.76 4:10.32
r:+0.75 23.04 48.06 (25.02)
1:13.59 (25.53) 1:39.27 (25.68)
2:05.04 (25.77) 2:30.65 (25.61)
2:56.03 (25.38) 3:21.44 (25.41)
3:46.15 (24.71) 4:10.32 (24.17)
Third place went to Michigan’s Patrick Callan, a U.S. Olympian as part of the 800 free relay, in 4:12.60.
Texas won last season’s NCAA team title by 27 points over Cal, and the Longhorns lost few key pieces of last year’s squad. Now, Hobson looks like a potential star, and he could join previous high-impact freshman additions to the Texas dynasty like Townley Haas, who captured national titles in the 200 free and 500 free during his first year in Austin, and Carson Foster.
In addition to his 500 free and relay action, Hobson is scheduled to swim the 200 free Friday and 1650 free Saturday.