As reported by SwimSwam’s Jared Anderson:
Phoenix Swim Club’s Miriam Sheehan is in her very last meet as a 10-and-under, but she got in just one day before her birthday, destroying the 100 yard backstroke National Age Group (NAG) record by almost two seconds.
Sheehan went 57.96 to win the 100 back at the 2015 Fall Meet #1 in Paradise Valley, Arizona, breaking the NAG record by a wide margin.
Sheehan turns 11 tomorrow, but gets to swim out the remainder of this meet in the 10&Under age group.
Today’s result gives her three short course NAGs in the 10-and-under bracket to go along with her five long course records.
She breaks the old 100 back NAG of 59.89 set by Regan Smith back in 2013, taking nearly two seconds off that time. Her 50 split of 27.76 – to her feet at the flip turn – would have broken Smith’s NAG as well, had Sheehan not already taken down that mark last weekend. Smith’s record was previously 27.79; Sheehan went 27.27 last week.
Sheehan now owns 10-and-under short course NAGs in the 50 fly, 50 back and 100 back. She holds long course records in the 50 free, 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly and 100 fly.
She swam (and won) the 100 free and 50 back earlier in the meet, just missing her NAG with a 27.33 in the back and going 55.53 in the free.
She’ll swim the 100 fly, 50 fly and 200 IM later on in the meet.
Full results are available on Meet Mobile.
Exactly, she is only 11 years old. Can’t we just let her swim and enjoy the process without putting the crushing pressure of future stardom upon her shoulders.
And yet she needs people who believe in her to accomplish such amazing things.
Looking forward to watching how she develops in the 11-12 age group. Regan Smith has been progressing very consistently – just made the USA Jr National Team as a 13-yr-old!!
She needs to show Missy her underwaters…
Awesome! Congratulations, Miriam!
Your username merits a thumbs up.
By the way, if someone could explain to me the interest of that age’s rule about US NAG records.
Why they take the age at the start of the meet to consider the NAG records?
Why not simply take the age of the swimmer the day he/she breaks a record?
Miriam Sheehan was 10 yesterday. Her time of 57.96 counts for the 10 and under age category. She’s 11 today. Her times should count for the 11/12 age category. Simply.
What’s the official reason to do differently?
bobo – I think there was a point in time where all swims were reported to USA Swimming as having happened as of the first day of a meet. Until recently, that’s how they were reported in the database. That may be at least a portion of why it’s done that way.
Because it would be weird/awkward for meet organizers to have to figure out and do entries for all the kids with their age on the day of a meet. Also, it would be awkward for coaches to have to deal with an athlete being able to swim the 9-10 Free Relay on Friday but not the 9-10 Medley Relay on Saturday.
PK, very good answer with concrete examples.
A M A Z I N G! 😯
With that crazy fast pace of improvement, maybe I must start to think about Miss Sheehan for the next update of my US 2016 olympic team barometer. 😆
More seriously, that NAG record will last a very long time in my opinion. Almost 2 seconds faster than Regan Smith who is already a young phenom! Wow! And yes, her underwaters are crazy. Her overall technique already looks pretty good.
MONSTER SWIM! Congrats!
And happy birthday. 🙂
That is INSANE fast for a 10 year old!
2020 will be her Olympics. She’ll be just shy of 16 then, but surely world class.
WOW- 10 years old ( well 11) incredibly swim. Swim phenome to say the least. Welcome to America’s Best up and coming young gal.