15-Year-Old Gabi Brito Drops 21.95 in the 50 Free on Day 1 of Oceanside Sectionals

2026 Speedo Sectionals – Oceanside CA

• February 26-March 1, 2026
• Oceanside, California
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Psych Sheets
• Meet Central
• Results: Thursday Timed Finals

15-year-old National Junior Team Member Gabi Brito split 21.95 on the leadoff leg of a Beach Cities Alpha 200 free relay on Thursday night in Oceanside, California. That’s a personal best by .35 seconds, and moves her into a tie with Olympic gold medalist Torri Huske as the 8th-fastest swimmer in age group history.

All of that in spite of Brito being in the younger half of the age group.

A relay from the Alto Swim Club won that race in 1:32.34. The winning relay included Tanishi Gupta, Lillie Nordmann, Maren Byrne, and Hailey Preuss. Brito and her Beach Cities Alpha teammates finished 6th.

Brito also swam on the 6th-place BCA 800 free relay, splitting 1:46.29 on a rolling start. Alto Swim Club also won that event in 7:18.89, which included a 1:47.85 split from Stanford alum Nordmann and a 1:49.34 anchor from 18-year-old Hailey Preuss. That sets up Preuss for some best times later in the meet – her best flat start in the 200 free is 1:50.43.

Other fast splits included a 1:44.75 2nd leg from Alyssa Ton on Irvine Novaquatics’ runner-up relay.

Other individual winners in the timed finals session included Lucy Flynn from Orange County Gold in the girls’ 1000 free. She was the only swimmer under 10 minutes in 9:58.50.

The boys’ distance race of the day was the 1650 free. That was won by a 15:04.19 from Cal freshman Julien Rousseau, a San Diego native. He was not on the Golden Bears’ ACC Championship roster, and this swim was an eight-and-a-half second improvement on his career best (which incidentally was from Sectionals in March 2023).

Rose Bowl’s boys won the 200 free relay in 1:22.61, including a 20.20 anchor from Calvin Li. Irvine Novaquatics won the boys’ 800 free relay in 6:35.27, anchored by David Gracia in 1:37.19. That’s almost three seconds better than his flat start personal best.