Gretchen Walsh and Katharine Berkoff swam the second-fastest 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke times in history, respectively, to win national titles on Thursday.
Walsh clocked 54.76 seconds in the 100m fly in Indianapolis, just off her own world record of 54.60. She broke the world record twice on May 3 at a Tyr Pro Series meet, plus at the Olympic Trials last June.
Walsh has the seven fastest times in history overall, all recorded in the last year. She is 88 hundredths faster than the second-fastest performer in history, Swede Sarah Sjöström (55.48 from the 2016 Olympics).
“I feel like my brain envisions people around me so I can chase them,” Walsh said on Peacock of her dominant victories. “It’s hard to know what I’m going, how fast, because obviously I can’t see a clock. So honestly, I just like pushing myself past boundaries that I never thought possible.”
SWIMMING: Broadcast Schedule | Results
Walsh took 100m fly silver at the Paris Games, four hundredths behind Torri Huske (who was second on Thursday, 1.85 seconds behind, to join Walsh on the World Championships team in the event).
At worlds in Singapore in July and August, Walsh will bid for her first individual title at a major international meet in a 50-meter pool.
She could be favored in three events: the 50m fly (where she is the second-fastest woman in history behind Sjöström), the 100m fly and the 50m freestyle (she’s the world’s second-fastest woman this year).
Sjöström, who won the 50m and 100m frees in Paris, is taking this season off while expecting her first child.
In the 50m back, Berkoff clocked 26.97 seconds to break the American record of 27.10 held by Regan Smith, who was second in Thursday’s final.
Berkoff met her goal of breaking 27 seconds. Her time was 11 hundredths shy of Australian Kaylee McKeown’s world record.
Berkoff took bronze in the Olympic 100m back behind McKeown and Smith. Like Walsh, she eyes her first individual major international title in Singapore.
The 50m back makes its Olympic debut in 2028, but it has been on the World Championships program since 2001.
The Toyota U.S. Championships continue Friday with finals at 7 p.m. ET, live on Peacock.
In other events Thursday, Bobby Finke, an Olympic 800m and 1500m free champ, won the men’s 400m individual medley over Carson Foster, the Olympic bronze medalist in the event.
Finke is not expected to swim the 400m IM at worlds given its final is in the same session as the 1500m final. He said after Thursday’s win that he has a plan in mind and has to talk to his coaches.
Emma Weyant took the women’s 400m IM by 2.41 seconds over Katie Grimes. Grimes and Weyant won silver and bronze in Paris behind world record holder Summer McIntosh of Canada.
Indiana native Lilly King won the 50m breaststroke in what she said will be the last domestic meet of her career. King, an Indiana native, is the 2016 Olympic 100m breast gold medalist and a world champion in all three breaststroke distances.
Shaine Casas earned his first career trials meet win in the 100m fly. About 40 minutes later, he also made the team in the 50m back with a runner-up finish behind Quintin McCarty.
