Swimming

Aurora Roghair Keeps Dropping, Now Ranks #8 in the US This Season in the 200 Free (IRVINE)

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By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2024 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INVITATIONAL

A small field is yielding big swims at the Southern California Invitational in Irvine. On Friday, established  stars like Ryan Murphy put up big times, while rising stars like Lucy Bell and Aurora Roghair swam best times a month out of the Olympic Trials.

Murphy won a deep 200 back field in 1:56.64, which is his best time snice last summer’s World Championships where he won silver in 1:54.83. That ranks Murphy tied-for-20th in the 200 back this season globally. His previous season-best was a 1:57.70 done in mid-April.

His fellow Cal alum Hugo Gonzalez finished 2nd in 1:57.05 and rising Cal sophomore Keaton Jones finished 3rd in 1:57.79.

Destin Lasco, the 2024 NCAA Champion and fastest-ever in yards, was 5th in just 2:03.51. He has typically been a big taper swimmer in the past (in 2021 he was 2:02.15 in mid-May before going 1:56.81 to final at Trials) but that 2:03 leaves him a big hole to work out over the next month and is his slowest long course time since June 2022.

The Stanford women, meanwhile, continued to build on a really successful college season for the program that saw them short on their usual superstars, but getting a lot of good results out of the talent that remained on the roster after transfers, professionalization, and redshirts.

Aurora Roghair won her 3rd event of the meet in the 200 free. She swam 1:58.11, marking another best time. Her previous fastest was a 1:59.04 done at the Pro Swim Series in San Antonio a month ago.

Her 1.6 second drop in long course so far this season chases a nearly-2 second drop in yards during the college season.

Roghair won the 400 free on Thursday in 4:09.46 and the 1500 in 16:19.79. Those were both best times as well – the 1500 by almost 19 seconds. Like the 1500, her best time in the 200 free ranks her 8th among Americans this season. Unlike the 1500 free, there are 6 slots available on the Olympic Team in the 200 free.

2023-2024 US Rankings, Women’s 200 LCM Free

  1. Katie Ledecky – 1:54.97 (April 2024)
  2. Anna Peplowski – 1:56.99 (April 2024)
  3. Paige Madden – 1:57.25 (April 2024)
  4. Simone Manuel – 1:57.37 (December 2023)
  5. Addison Sauickie – 1:57.98 (September 2023)
  6. Erin Gemmell – 1:57.98 (April 2024)
  7. Claire Weinstein – 1:58.08 (March 2024)
  8. Aurora Roghair – 1:58.11 (May 2024)
  9. Leah Hayes – 1:58.19 (September 2023)
  10. Camille Spink – 1:58.61 (October 2023)

It took a time of 1:57.61 to make the US Olympic Team in the 800 free relay in 2021.

Roghair’s Stanford teammate Lucy Bell won the 400 IM in 4:41.64. That swim crushes her previous personal best of 4:44.27 that won silver at the Pan American Games last October. She had been 4:44 three times at big championship meets before finally breaking through, at a non-championship meet, on Friday.

The difference was thanks to a monumental improvement on the breaststroke leg. In her previous best time, she split 1:23.45. On Friday, she split 1:18.79.

She also swam 2:10.53 in the 200 fly (three-tenths shy of her personal best) earlier in the meet.

It wasn’t a best time, but Lillie Nordmann concluded the session with a 58.57 in the 100 fly to give the Stanford women three wins in four events. That is her best time since swimming a 58.46 in the B-Final of last summer’s US Nationals.

The other women’s race was won by Cal senior and US National Team member Isabelle Stadden in 2:08.79. She has been 2:08 in three of her last four long course meets.

Other Day 3 Winners:

  • Cal’s Gabriel Jett won the 200 free in 1:47.88, holding off a late charge from 2023 World Championship team member Henry McFadden of Stanford. Stanford finished 2nd in 1:47.95. 2021 US Olympian Brooks Curry was 3rd in 1:48.99 and Trenton Julian finished 4th in 1:50.70.
  • Michael Andrew won the 100 fly in 51.83, almost a second ahead of Dare Rose (52.76), the 2023 World Championship bronze medalist in this event. That is his best time in over a year, a period that spans 19 swims. He won the 100 breast (59.87) on Thursday and is scheduled to wrap his meet Saturday in the 50 free.
  • Rising UCSB senior Taber daCosta swam 4:25.08 in the 400 IM to crush his personal best of 4:29.11 from Sectionals in early March. He was 3rd in the 400 yard IM at the MPSF Championships in February, specializing more in the mile. This was his first event of the meet.

SwimSwam: Aurora Roghair Keeps Dropping, Now Ranks #8 in the US This Season in the 200 Free (IRVINE)

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