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Insider: Nikolaev races to NCAA top
11/22/2018 1:47:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
Senior's historic swim vaults GCU to No. 16 nationally
Mark Nikolaev put himself in the same sentences as two of the greatest collegiate backstroke swimmers ever.
Nikolaev swam the 100-yard backstroke last week in a time (44.61) that might be the fastest pre-January time in NCAA history. He obliterated the Hawkeye Invitational field, beating the runner-up by 2.45 seconds and coming within one-hundredth of a second of Ryan Lochte's NCAA record that stood from 2006 to 2016 for Florida. Ryan Murphy set the new mark, 43.49, for California in 2016.
Nikolaev's time ranks fifth in NCAA history and eighth in the history of competition in the U.S.
"How good is 44.61? As far as I can tell, it's the fastest pre-January NCAA time ever," Andrew Mering wrote on swimswam.com. "It ties Ryan Murphy's best pre-January time. It is only .01 slower than Ryan Lochte's long-standing NCAA record of 44.60. The fastest two times in the NCAA all season last year were Coleman Stewart at 44.54 and John Shebat at 44.59. It's a PR for Nikolaev – his old best was 44.71, and it's .38 faster than he was at this point last year."
It takes longer to sum up Nikolaev's accomplishments than it does for the senior from Russia to race in the 100 backstroke.
What Nikolaev did at Iowa was important for the team too. With Nikolaev's NCAA A cut that qualifies him for the NCAA Championships, the Lopes need only an A cut relay time to qualify all relays for NCAAs with B cuts.
His swim also vaulted GCU to be the 16th-ranked men's swimming team in the nation on collegeswimming.com. The Lopes are No. 1 among mid-major programs.
Nikolaev ranks fifth nationally in the 200 individual medley (1:43.43), sixth in the 200 backstroke (1:40.81) and seventh in the 100 freestyle (42.54) while contributing to five relays that posted the WAC's fastest times this season.
Last season, Nikolaev held the nation's second-fastest 100 backstroke time of the regular season (44.71) and took 10th at NCAAs (45.21) to earn All-America honorable mention.
"At the time of the swim (in Iowa), I didn't really think about the historical significance of the swim at all," GCU head coach Steve Schaffer said. "I had made some changes to our training this year and basically thought, 'Wow, things seem to be working; that's a pretty good time.' And then started thinking that he would probably be able to have, not only a good 200 back the next day, but maybe I should lead him off of the 400 free realy to try to get an NCAA invite in the 100 free as well. Mark was up for it, so we did."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
Nikolaev swam the 100-yard backstroke last week in a time (44.61) that might be the fastest pre-January time in NCAA history. He obliterated the Hawkeye Invitational field, beating the runner-up by 2.45 seconds and coming within one-hundredth of a second of Ryan Lochte's NCAA record that stood from 2006 to 2016 for Florida. Ryan Murphy set the new mark, 43.49, for California in 2016.
Nikolaev's time ranks fifth in NCAA history and eighth in the history of competition in the U.S.
"How good is 44.61? As far as I can tell, it's the fastest pre-January NCAA time ever," Andrew Mering wrote on swimswam.com. "It ties Ryan Murphy's best pre-January time. It is only .01 slower than Ryan Lochte's long-standing NCAA record of 44.60. The fastest two times in the NCAA all season last year were Coleman Stewart at 44.54 and John Shebat at 44.59. It's a PR for Nikolaev – his old best was 44.71, and it's .38 faster than he was at this point last year."
It takes longer to sum up Nikolaev's accomplishments than it does for the senior from Russia to race in the 100 backstroke.
What Nikolaev did at Iowa was important for the team too. With Nikolaev's NCAA A cut that qualifies him for the NCAA Championships, the Lopes need only an A cut relay time to qualify all relays for NCAAs with B cuts.
His swim also vaulted GCU to be the 16th-ranked men's swimming team in the nation on collegeswimming.com. The Lopes are No. 1 among mid-major programs.
Nikolaev ranks fifth nationally in the 200 individual medley (1:43.43), sixth in the 200 backstroke (1:40.81) and seventh in the 100 freestyle (42.54) while contributing to five relays that posted the WAC's fastest times this season.
Last season, Nikolaev held the nation's second-fastest 100 backstroke time of the regular season (44.71) and took 10th at NCAAs (45.21) to earn All-America honorable mention.
"At the time of the swim (in Iowa), I didn't really think about the historical significance of the swim at all," GCU head coach Steve Schaffer said. "I had made some changes to our training this year and basically thought, 'Wow, things seem to be working; that's a pretty good time.' And then started thinking that he would probably be able to have, not only a good 200 back the next day, but maybe I should lead him off of the 400 free realy to try to get an NCAA invite in the 100 free as well. Mark was up for it, so we did."
Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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/ Men's Swimming and Diving
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