Zionsville's Will Modglin biggest riser in IM: 'Looking forward, I could be making those teams'
INDIANAPOLIS – Will Modglin is a backstroker. That is not all he is.
His Zionsville Swim Club coach, Eric Meyer, encourages swimmers to try all four strokes, and especially so with such a prodigy.
“I think he took pride in doing all four strokes,” Meyer said.
This week, Modglin took more than pride. He took action.
After getting into semifinals because of a scratch, he finished eighth in the 200-meter individual medley Friday on night 7 of the U.S. Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Carson Foster made it a sweep of individual medleys, winning in 1:55.65 over Shaine Casas’ 1:55.83. Owen McDonald, who is transferring from Arizona State to Indiana University, was fifth in 1:57.51.
It was the second final for Modglin, who was sixth in the 100-meter backstroke. He was third in the 200 individual medley after butterfly but eighth at each checkpoint thereafter.
He came to the trials ranked 28th in the 200 IM with a time of 2:01.37. He lowered that to 1:58.44 in semifinals and final, nearly a three-second drop, or 2.4% — the largest of any of the 90 men in the event, according to data compiled by SwimSwam.
Moreover, Modglin’s cumulative improvement in 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 200 IM is 3.9%. That ranks sixth out of the 1,040 swimmers here.
(Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano cut 3.37 seconds in the 200-meter freestyle, a 3.1% drop.)
The 200 IM is intriguing because, after years of domination by Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, Team USA needs new IMers. Swimmers like Modglin, 20.
“In college, when you look at all the times, IM is the biggest event where people drop,” he said. “It could definitely be something that, in the future, looking forward, I could be making those teams.”
Phelps won every Olympic gold medal in the 200 individual medley from 2004 through 2016. Lochte won three medals in that span and set the two most recent world records, following Phelps’ eight world records.
Moreover, Modglin is at the University of Texas, where Foster and Casas train. Foster, 22, has two world medals from the 200 IM and won the 400 IM at these trials.
Bob Bowman, after leading Arizona State to an NCAA championship, has taken over as Texas coach following Eddie Reese’s retirement. Phelps and France’s Leon Marchand, reigning world champion in the 200 IM, were coached by Bowman.
“He might know a few things about IM,” Meyer said.
Modglin was a twice national high school swimmer of the year. Last year he set a national record in the 100-yard backstroke, breaking the record held by Ryan Murphy — who became the first to sweep 100- and 200-meter backstrokes at three successive Olympic Trials.
Modglin won three state titles in both 100 backstroke and 200 IM. He perhaps should have broken 2 minutes in the 200 IM while in high school, Meyer said.
“He took a little bit more of a risk than he used to in the first half of the race to make the finals,” the Zionsville coach said.
In March’s NCAA Championships at the IU Natatorium, Modglin won the B final of the 100-yard backstroke in 44.20 — .08 off the fastest ever by a college freshman, and also a school record. He would have placed fifth in the A final.
He focused on long course (50-meter) pool ahead of the trials. Weeks ago, Reese told Meyer that Modglin was making breakthroughs.
These trials have been a breakout for Modglin. With a meet of such consequence at home, it helped he could relax around family, including two swimmer brothers, Sanders and Coleman. The brothers made up three-fourths of a relay team in a senior state meet in July 2019.
“I feel like most of these U.S. meets, qualifying meets or national meets, I haven’t had the best history with them,” Modglin said. “So it was really just trying to get my feet under myself and make that semifinal. I did that.
“I was just racing each race one step at time.”
One stroke at a time.
More from Night 7 of US Olympic Trials
>> Guiliano, the first Notre Dame men’s swimmer to make an Olympic team, capped a momentous week by finishing second in the 50 freestyle. He qualified to swim 50, 100 and 200 freestyles at an Olympics, something only Matt Biondi, in 1988, has done among American men. Caeleb Dressel, third in the 100 freestyle, was first in 21.41. Matt King, who is transferring to IU, was third in 21.70.
>> In heats of the 800 freestyle, Carmel teens Molly Sweeney and Kayla Han were 25th and 28th in 8:45.30 and 8:46.53, respectively. Han, the world junior champion, and Sweeney came in seeded eighth and 10th.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA Swimming Olympic Trials: Will Modglin shows big improvement in IM
