14-Year Old Abby King Picks Up First Summer Juniors Cut at Shamrock Showdown

2022 SwimRVA Shamrock Showdown

• March 25-27, 2022
• SwimRVA-CSAC, Richmond, Virginia
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), timed finals for races 400 yards and longer, prelims/finals for shorter events
• Results

14-year old Abby King of the Westchester Aquatic Club got her first Summer Juniors cut and 757swim’s Ella Epes won three events over the weekend at the SwimRVA Shamrock Showdown.

The 14-year old King won the open-age 200 yard breaststroke by almost 8 seconds, touching in 2:15.33. That swim put her into the top 10 among 14-year olds nationwide this season in that event, and also slid just-under the 2:15.49 standard for this summer’s Speedo Junior National Championships.

King’s best time coming into the meet was a 2:18.23 that she swam two weeks ago at the Metro SC Junior Olympics meet closer to home, and in total she has dropped more than 12 seconds from her best of 2:27.75 entering the 2021-2022 season.

King also won the 100 breaststroke (1:04.89), finished 2nd in the 200 IM (2:06.70), and finished 2nd in the 400 IM (4:26.33). She swims for the same club that Olympic medalist, NCAA Champion, and fastest 200 breaststroker in history Kate Douglass grew up training with.

She wasn’t the only impressive 200 breaststroker at the meet. 16-year old NCAP swimmer Jordan Kelly swam one event at the meet, the 200 breaststroke, and finished in 1:58.84. That was his first time under 1:59 in the event, slicing four-tenths off his best time from NCSA Junior Nationals earlier this month. He placed 11th in this event at that meet.

At a meet that had only a few multiple winners in the open age group, Ella Epes picked up a trio of victories. The UConn commit picked up wins in the 100 free (52.11), 100 fly (54.68), and 200 fly (2:02.83) at the meet. She was just a 2:10 in the 200 fly coming into the season, but has now knocked almost eight seconds off that.

For the senior UConn commit, that time leads all returning Huskies heading into next season and ranks her behind only one returning swimmer in the Big East Conference next season – Seton Hall rising senior Sierra Cripps (2:01.32).

Other Notable Swims and Swimmers:

• 16-year old Leah Treglia swam 54.30 in the 100 back, which cuts about four-tenths of a second off her lifetime best and improves her Winter Juniors cut in the event. She also won the 200 back in 1:59.86. Treglia is an uncommitted high school junior.
• Nien Levy, a high school senior who has not publicly announced a college commitment yet, won the 50 free in a new Meet Record of 20.51. He just-outtouched Enfinity’s Nathan Jao, who was 2nd in 20.58. Levy also won the 100 free in 45.51. Both swims are faster than he was at NCSAs last week, and the 50 free time gives him a USA Swimming Winter Juniors cut.
• Jao won the 200 IM (1:50.25) and 100 fly (48.95) individually, both in Meet Records and new personal best times. Jao, another senior, will go to the US Military Academy at West Point next season and is the North Carolina Class 2A High School State Champion in both of those events.