East Carolina Aquatics Intrasquad Meet
- Oct. 30, 2020
- Minges Natatorium, Greenville, NC
- Course: SCY
- Link to Results
At East Carolina Aquatics’ intrasquad meet last Thursday, one North Carolina Swimming LSC Record fell and several swimmers posted nationally ranked swims.
The meet was headlined by 12-year-old Ezra Zapler, who threw down an impressive time of 22.59 in the 50 freestyle.
With his swim, Zapler cut over 1.3 seconds off of his previous best time (23.96), breaking the 11-12 year-old North Carolina LSC Record in the event. The previous record was a 23.04, shared by Ryan Weaver, who set it in 2016, and Lane Bradshaw, who set his time in 2018. Zapler’s swim ranks him 15th all-time in the 11-12 age group, according to the USA Swimming database and it is currently the fastest time in the country in that age group by over eight tenths of a second.
Zapler also posted fast times in the 100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 IM. In the 100 freestyle, Zapler threw down a time of 51.11, which cut over 2 seconds off of his previous best time (53.13) from earlier in the month. His swim also ranks 2nd nationally in the 11-12 age-group.
Zapler posted a time of 1:07.68 in the 100 breaststroke, slicing a half-second off of his old best (1:08.08) and he later swam a time of 58.48 in the 100 IM to cut about 2 seconds off of his best time (1:00.31). Those swims rank him 7th and 3rd, respectively, in the country across his age-group this season.
Fellow 12-year-old Owen Lin finished behind Zapler in the 50 freestyle, posting a fast swim himself. Lin touched the wall in a time of 23.77, which dropped over a second off of his previous best (24.84). He now ranks 4th nationally in the 11-12 age-group.
Lin also posted nationally-ranked times for the 11-12 age group in the 100 freestyle (5th), 50 butterfly (2nd), 200 butterfly (4th), and 200 breaststroke (4th).
Other Highlights:
- 14-year-old Emily Armen posted a time of 24.17 in the 50 freestyle, dropping well-over a second off of her best time (25.74). Armen now ranks 13th nationally in her age-group.
- 16-year-old Emma Hastings swam to a final time of 4:53.50 in the 500 freestyle, which ranks 4th nationally in the 15-15 age group.
see what kind of swimmer he is like when when he looks his age. He looks 19 now. Will we hear from him when he turns 19?
Who knows where he’ll be at going into college but if you’ve seen him in person he doesn’t look 19 at all. At most I’d say 15, the height throws off assessments
Ecu has the worst starting blocks ever. Great job kid.
If that’s a pic of Erza, he looks like he’s 20.
No way that picture is a 12 year old
I saw him in March and even then he was huge. Like over 6 feet.
What are you 8 and think everyone older and taller is in college? Maybe looks 14/15 at most. Saw him in February at States and just a lanky dude who got tall quickly but deffinely nothing else other than his height would make me say he was older than 12
The club team is doing practice at the ECU pool. But, then why did the college team get cut if the pool is still in operation?
While I can understand your reason for asking that question, I think to answer that is to first understand the reasoning behind ECU cutting the program. While I’m not at all familiar with the circumstances surrounding ECU, nor when they cut their program, there are MANY possible factors that go into making difficult decisions like cutting school athletic teams.
So to give you thoughts on this question: 1) Yes, the school may OWN the pool, but the club teams related to those universities have never owned the pool complexes. So the school could cancel the program, but the pool could still be rented out to both club and masters teams as well as non team related lap or recreational… Read more »
Actually I swim with Ezra at Minges(ECUs pool). ECU cut both their swimming and tennis teams. Both of these teams had over half of their kids coming from out of the country. So the international kids are coming to the unite d states for college and then going back to their country.
It’s money. Kind of hard to justify to a student body keeping a sport that burns 1+ million a year. More are going and if the NCAA lowers Div. 1 requirements you will see many non-revenue sports tossed aside. Schools got away from what they were set up to be. Sports have done it to themselves with budgets ballooning over the last 2 decades.
Regardless, how about we give the child some credit and not try to make this about a team that is never coming back.