13-Year Old Charlotte Crush Swims 22.14 in 50 Free at Southern Premier Meet

2022 Southern Premier Meet

• March 4-6, 2022
• Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, University of Tennessee
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results

13-year old Charlotte Crush stole the show on day 1 of the 2022 Southern Premier Meet in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The 8th grader is the youngest of the Crush swimming dynasty, and might just be the best of the group too.

Crush swam four races on Friday, starting with the 200 free relay. There, she split 22.14 on the leadoff leg of the Lakeside Swim Team’s runner-up squad, which touched in 1:32.89.

That time whacked her best time of 22.80 from Winter Junior Easts in December (also on a relay leadoff), is the fastest ever swum by a 13-year old, and ranks her 3rd all-time in the 13-14 age group.

Top 5 13-14 girls, 50 yard freestyle:

1. Claire Curzan, TAC Titans, 21.89 (2019)
2. Gretchen Walsh, Nashville Aquatic Club, 22.00 (2017)
3. Kate Douglass, Unattached, 22,32 (2016)
4. Dara Torres, Unattached, 22.44 (1982)
5. Missy Franklin, Colorado Stars, 22.49 (2010)

With that swim, Crush, even in the younger half of the age group, joins an unbelievable list of Olympians and record holders. And that list doesn’t slow down as it gets deeper, either – #7 is Lia Neal, and #8 is Torri Huske, more swimmers who went on to have huge success at the senior level.

That time also qualifies Crush for the USA Swimming International Team Trials at the end of April.

A few races later, Crush swam 1:50.01 in the 200 free final, taking over two seconds off her previous best. She would further lower that time on a leadoff leg on Lakeside’s 4th-place 800 free relay, splitting 1:49.93.

She went four-for-four in best times in the finals session, also swimming a 1:54.44 in the 200 backstroke. That is four seconds better than her personal best coming into the meet, and ranks her 11th all-time in the 13-14 age group, and is the LSC Record for 13-14s.

Crush is the youngest of the four crush swimmers, after Annabel, Charlie, and Johnny. Annabel is a freshman at NC State and was the 2021 Kentucky State Champion in the 100 back and 200 IM. Charlie, the defending Kentucky State Champion in the 100 back and 100 fly, is a high school senior committed to Louisville. Johnny won a Kentucky state title of his own three weeks ago in the 200 free as a sophomore.

They are all the children of Chip Crush and Mimi Bowen Crush, who met while on the swim team at Auburn. Father Chip was a National High School Record breaker, 3-time SEC Champion, and CSCAA All-American, while Mimi was an NCAA Champion in the 100 fly and 200 medley relay in 1997.

The best performance in boys’ racing on Friday came from Texas A&M-bound Baylor Nelson, the top recruit in the high school class of 2022. He swam a best time of 3:41.59 in the 400 IM. That is not only his best time by over a second, but it ranks him as the 9th-best 17-18 ever in that event.

Other Day 1 Highlights:

• Cardinal Aquatics’ Ella Welch swam 1:46.04 to win the women’s 200 free, just ahead of Dynamo’s Sophie Brison (1:46.86). For Welch, a Louisville commit, that’s a 1.7 second improvement, while Brison’s swim was a 1.2 second drop.
• Welch would later add a best time of 1:00.79 in the 100 breaststroke, 1.17 seconds better than her pervious personal best. That placed her 3rd behind Jessey Li (1:00.39) and Grace Rainey (1:00.14), who also swam lifetime bests.
• Brison later picked up a win in the 200 back in 1:54.35, edging out the aforementioned Crush. Her best time is 1:53.29.
• 13-year old Evelyn Jezerinac, also a talented athlete on the track, won the 13-14 100 breast in 1:04.89. That’s a personal best by two-and-a-half seconds and also ranks her 5th among 13-year olds nationally this season.