We sat down with James Guy, the world champion, Olympic medalist, and FINIS athlete who's looking for gold in Tokyo. Guy gets deep when talking about his preparation as well as what his relay teammates are doing to get ready for the Tokyo Olympics. Come Tokyo, Guy is not only eyeing individual hardware but also looking to top the podium in the 4x200 free and 4x100 medley relays, both of which Britain has taken 1 world title in at the last 3 world Championships (4x200 gold in '15, '17, 4x100 medley gold in '19).

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Music: Otis McDonald

We sat down with Washington State head coach Matt Leach, who coached one of his athletes to a Pac-12 championship title, the first in WSU history. Leach takes us through the race as well as the season for the Cougars, detailing the ups and downs they've faced throughout this season. Leach, who was the head coach at Indiana State before relocating to WSU, also dives into what it takes to build up a collegiate women's program.

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We sat down with Cal women's head coach and Olympic coach Teri McKeever. Teri gives some context to the Cal women's Pac-12 team title, it's first since 2015, and explains what her team has had to go through with COVID protocols this past season. She also gives her perspective on how NCAAs will look different, especially with timed finals of all relays. McKeever is a proponent of prelims/finals relays, noting that it makes the NCAAs more about overcoming a challenge than putting oneself in a position to go fast.

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ACC Swimmer of the meet Jack Hoagland lit it up at the ACC championships for Notre Dame, taking wins in the 500 free, 400 IM, and 1,650. Hoagland sat down with us to break down his races and tell us about his year of training. Last year at ACCs, Hoagland made an immediate impact but was somewhat riding the coattails of his distance-star teammate, Zach Yeadon. After Yeadon transferred to Cal, however, Hoagland explains how he stepped up his game to take the reigns and become the new distance stud on campus.

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We sat down with the 2x ACC Champion in the 50 and 100 free, Matt Brownstead. The Virginia freshman gives us his take on his swims at the championships, training in Charlottesville, and his NCAA class as a whole. We've already seen a slew of 18-unders drop 18+ and 41+ swims in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and Brownstead thinks the NCAA Champs will just bring more.

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We sat down with the University of Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero, who is fresh off of his team's first men's ACC championship title in program history. Albiero explans the attitude of gratitude and keeping things day-to-day that got the cardinals through the season and he believes aided them through the ACC Championship meet. On paper, not even Albiero was confident that the cardinal could win, but his swimmers kept fighting and kept the meet close throughout, culminating in the last session when they took the lead with just the 4x100 free relay to go and was able to hold on by taking 2nd in that event.

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Oakton senior Anthony Grimm was in excellent form last week, picking up another 2 individual VHSL titles to cap off his career, and providing a few more stellar relay performances. Grimm kicked off his meet with a blistering 20.87 lead-off on the 200 medley relay, establishing a new personal best. The swim was the fastest back split in the field by over 2 seconds. Grimm also provided a 19.24 anchor split on the 200 free relay.

That 200 free relay won by over 2 seconds, hitting the wall in 1:23.57, just off the VHSL record. Graham Evers led Oaktown off in 21.01, Carl Blakney was 2nd with a 21.53, and Wes Kron went 3rd for a 21.79. On the 200 medley, Grimm teamed up with Evers on breast (27.31), Ian Ching on fly (23.23), and Blakney on free (21.36) for a 1:32.77.

Individually, Grimm won the 50 free by nearly a full send, roaring to the wall in 19.69. The swim came in just a hair off his personal best 19.67, which he swam in 2019, and is the VHSL overall record.

Grimm  then went on to break the VHSL 6A and overall records in the 100 breast, clocking a 53.84. The swim was actually off his personal best of 52.51 by a quite a bit, but it was faster than he swam in any meet during 2020.

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We sat down with Olympic and World champion, Katie Ledecky. Ledecky took us through what her quarantine has looked like going back to March, and the restrictions she's had to adhere to in Santa Clara county. Ledecky has a positive outlook, saying she's grateful to have kept in the water for the most part and having gotten a good training block in over the past few months without any travel. Ledecky specifically references a best average test set that started one week with 24x100, then 18, 12, and 6, with a goal of having a faster average each week.

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We sat down with Florida sprint coach Steve Jungbluth to discuss this success that Florida's sprint core had at the SEC championships, specifically breakout freshman Adam Chaney. Jungbluth admits that Adam's backstroke speed surprised even him, but his freestyle speed was about what they thought he could be, especially given his predecessor.

Jungbluth compares his former pupil, Caeleb Dressel, to the 2009 super-suit era where people's eyes were opened to what was possible. In the wake of Dressel's mind-blowing NCAA records, Jungbluth says that is now the standard that so many youngsters are going after.

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We sat down with UNLV head coach Ben Loorz and associate head coach Pat Ota, who are coming off winning conference championships with both their men's and women's teams. The two describe what it was like to both win a nail-biting victory on the women's side, which came down to the last relay, and a dominant one on the men's side. They also discuss working with the ISL sprint star Kasia Wasick, and the qualities they've seen her that set her apart from the pack.

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Music: Otis McDonald