Sophomore breaststroker Kevin Cordes was named NCAA Swimmer of the Year after shattering records in the 100 and 200y-breaststroke events at the NCAA Championships this weekend at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Cordes became the fastest man to ever swim the 200y-breaststroke event and broke NCAA, American, U.S. Open and school records in the 100y-breaststroke.
“He is the fastest 200 breaststroker in the history of the sport by three seconds,” Arizona head coach Eric Hansen said in a press release. “He is a stud and still young in the sport, so he is only going to get better.”
After breaking his old American record in the prelims with a time of 50.93, Cordes continued to dazzle, breaking the previous NCAA and U.S. Open record of 50.86 with his time of 50.74 in the finals.
During the final night of competition, Cordes shone again, and became the fastest 200y-breaststroker in history after compiling a time of 1:48.68. In the preliminaries, he became the first ever sub-1:50 200y-breaststroker and swam a time of 1:49.79. He followed up by breaking his own record in the finals for the second night and became the first swimmer to break the 1:49 mark with his historic 1:48.68 time in the finals.
“I just really controlled my stroke,” Cordes said in a press release. “I didn’t go all out on my first hundred this morning, so I thought I could do that tonight and get out front. It’s a great training environment at Arizona. I’m really happy I found the right school and the right coaches and teammates. It’s been a blessing to be able to race each other every day.”
Arizona’s men compiled 313.5 points and finished behind Michigan (480) and Cal (406.5) in the final standings. The Wildcats finished with a national championship in the 400y-medley relay along with the two individual titles claimed by Cordes.
As a program, Arizona has finished in the top-10 every year since 1998 and has held at least one national championship (individual, team or relay) every year since 2004.
Arizona’s 400y-medley relay team closed out the opening night of competition with a victory and a shattered school record. Senior Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or, juniors Giles Smith and Mitchell Friedemann and Cordes won with a time of 3:02.09, just short of the NCAA record.
Senior Carl Mickelson and junior Matt Barber also contributed this weekend. Mickelson broke his personal best in the 200y-breaststroke as he finished with a time of 1:51.90, just behind Cordes. Barber qualified with a personal best prelim time of 4:15.70 in the 500y-freestyle event and followed that up by placing fifth in the finals with a time of 4:13.80. He became the fifth fastest 500y-freestyle swimmer in school history.
