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NCAA Men’s Championships: Luca Urlando Takes Down Ryan Murphy’s American Record in 100 Backstroke
Performance of the Week, Sponsored by Luma Lanes
Georgia sophomore Luca Urlando has developed into one of the best butterfliers in the United States over the past few years, and so far at the NCAA Championships, he has finished a close second place in the 100 butterfly and third place in the 200 IM with a massive personal-best performance, and he split a sizzling 1:30.58 on Georgia’s second-place 800 free relay team. Now, Urlando is an American-record holder — in backstroke.
Leading off Georgia’s 400 medley relay team at the end of Friday night’s session, Urlando used his phenomenal underwaters to blast out in front of the field, and he touched in 43.35. That took down the American, U.S. Open and NCAA records of 43.49 that Cal’s Ryan Murphy set at the 2016 NCAA Championships, just months before he won Olympic gold in both long course backstroke events. Ironically, Urlando’s performance came six years to the day that Murphy set the previous record and in the same Atlanta pool.
“I’m super surprised. During practice, there’s been a few moments where I thought I’ve been a 43 but not American record 43, so just overall, I’m super happy with it,” Urlando said. “I was just trying to think about pushing my underwaters as far as I could go without getting DQ’ed and focusing on my own race and not looking at others during my race.”
Urlando admitted that it was a rough December and January as he battled the flu, appendicitis and then a stomach virus that prevented him from training normally until six weeks prior to the SEC Championships. But he after a freshman season in which he did not finish higher than fourth place in an individual event, Urlando has become one of the most versatile swimmers in college swimming.
Urlando’s best chance at capturing his first individual NCAA title will come Saturday when he swims the 200 fly as the No. 2 seed in the event, but his underwater skills make him a threat in any event in the short course format of college swimming. “I love doing every stroke and doing it fast. I think underwaters obviously help a lot in short course. Underwaters help you become as versatile as possible,” he said.
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