Maddy Schaefer, a junior at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California, downed the National Independent High School record in the 50 free at this weekend’s Central Coast Sectional Meet in Santa Clara. Her time of 22.26 in prelims knocked off the old record of 22.39, held by Christina Swindle of Gulliver Prep in Miami. Schaefer then lowered her record even further to 22.24 in the finals.
The overall record is still held by Kara Lynn Joyce of Pioneer High in Ann Arbor, who later was a star at the University of Georgia. That mark is 22.04 seconds, and Schaefer will have a chance to run at that mark next season.
A quartet from Carondolet High, alma mater of Natalie Coughlin, smashed the old overall (and independent school) records in the 200 medley relay by going a swift 1:40.80. The old mark was set by the Baylor School in Chattanooga last year at 1:41.63. The record setting squad was Madison White, Allison Gargalikis, Christina Ray, and Chelsea Chenault.
This now makes 4 overall National Records, and 1 independent National Record, in the last 2 weeks set in the state of California. This is a huge number considering the suit-fueled assault on the record books that has taken place over the last few seasons. These records include Vlad Morozov breaking Jimmy Feigen’s 50 and 100 freestyle national records, and Cindy Tran breaking Natalie Coughlin’s 100 backstroke record. There were also 9 different National High School Records (public, independent, and overall) broken in February.
At the same meet last year, a group of boys from Saratoga High broke one of the better records, the 400 free relay, in a time of 3:00.68.
Schaefer’s club teammate at Palo Alto Aquatics, Jasmine Tosky, also had some unbelievable swims at the meet. The sophomore from Palo Alto High recorded the top time’s in the nation this season in the 100 fly (52.77) and 200 freestyle (1:44.11). With 2 more years, Tosky will take a serious run at Misty Hyman’s national mark in the fly of 52.41 which has stood since 1996., That is the oldest record in women’s high school swimming and the only one set before 2000.
