U.S. Nationals: Kevin Vargas Pulls Away to Capture 400 IM
A swimmer wearing a Florida cap got his hand to the wall first in the 400 individual medley Thursday night at U.S. Nationals.
It wasn’t the one you might have expected from perusing the pysch sheets. Or maybe even the second choice.
Kevin Vargas bossed the final though in Irvine, giving his home-state fans a show by going 4:11.45.the native of Murrieta, Calif., was just behind British Olympian Max Litchfield for the first 200 meters, but he used a stellar breaststroke leg to pull ahead for good.
Vargas split 1:10.48 on the breaststroke leg to the 1:12.71 of Litchfield, a gap the Brit couldn’t close down.
It’s a personal-best for Vargas by more than 6 seconds over what he came in with. He was second, in the sixth heat of prelims and to Litchfield overall, in the morning with what was then a personal-best 4:14.07.
“I really love this pool,” Vargas said on the NBC broadcast. “I’ve swam great in it since 2018, and every time I come here, I swim even faster.”
The race was without the Americans who have the second and third fastest times in the world this year, Carson Foster and Chase Kalisz, respectively (though Kalisz was on hand to provide commentary).
Still, the field was augmented by international flavor, with Litchfield second in 4:13:08 and Australian Elliot Rogerson in eighth.
Vargas, who has been working with Florida coach Anthony Nesty on his backstroke, knew he had to stick with Litchfield early. If he did that, he’d have the legs coming home.
“I knew Max was going to be pushing me through 200, but I just wanted to stay with him,” Vargas said. “From there, it was just executing the breaststroke the way I can and trying to hold on in the free.”
Kieran Smith, venturing into an off event, finished third in 4:14.04. David Johnston was fourth, followed by Baylor Nelson, Sean Grieshop and Jake Foster.
The finals proceeded without a pair of Olympians. Bobby Finke, the Olympic gold medalist in the 800 and 1,500 free, finished 11th in the prelims and scratched finals. The same is true for Olympian Jake Mitchell, who finished 13th in the morning. (Finke’s 4:10.57 from International Team Trials is the sixth-fastest time in the world in 2022.)
One of the beneficiaries was Ian Grum, who moved to an inside lane after finishing 16th in the morning. He set a personal best by some five seconds to win the B final in 4:17.87.
Vargas’ familiarity with this pool left him with a familiar if elusive feeling of accomplishment Thursday. He said the swim felt like his biggest achievement since the 2018 Nationals here, where he went 4:18 in a B final. That got him onto the radar for Florida, the school he wanted to go to, which got him into a training group with Finke and Smith, which got him back atop the podium.
“They love to race. Bobby doesn’t like to show that he likes to race, but Kieran really brings the best out of all of us,” Vargas said. “Those two guys, especially Bobby, I train a lot with Bobby in IM sets, he’s the one I’m chasing, and it’s worked out so far.”
