Shaine Casas Breaks 1:40 in 200 IM Solo Time Trial (Race Video)
During the Wednesday morning session at the Art Adamson Invitational, Shaine Casas swam what would have been the country’s fastest time in the 200 IM (if he were still a college swimmer), but he was unable to advance to the final as an exhibition swimmer. However, not to be deterred, Casas swam in a time trial by himself during the finals session and recorded a 1:39.95 in the event. That was exactly one second off his lifetime best of 1:38.95 from this meet last season, a time which ranks him third all-time behind Caeleb Dressel and Andrew Seliskar.
Casas won the NCAA title in the event last year at 1:39.53, but this time was quicker than anyone else in that race since Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez took second in 1:39.99. The only swimmers to ever beat that mark besides Dressel, Seliskar and Casas are Andreas Vazaios, David Nolan, Jan Switkowski and John Shebat. It is unclear if the 1:39.95 will count as an official time as it is listed nowhere in meet results (either the official live results page or on Meet Mobile).
Casas was entered in both the 400 IM and 100 back (again as an exhibition swimmer in Thursday morning’s prelims of the Art Adamson Invite, but he no-showed for both races. It is unclear if he plans to compete in more time trials or events over the final day-and-a-half of the meet.
In addition to his IM skills, Casas won both backstroke events at last year’s NCAA Championships for Texas A&M before he finished a disappointing third place in the 100 back and sixth in the 200 back at U.S. Olympic Trials. Next month, Casas will make his senior international debut for the United States at next month’s Short Course World Championships, where he will compete in all three backstroke events, and he will be in the running for a spot on the 2022 U.S. World Championships team in April.
In September, he announced that he would be turning pro and moving to Austin to train with the University of Texas pro group, but he has remained in College Station to this point after competing for the Aggies for three seasons.
Check out the full video of Casas’ time trial below: