The Aquajets of suburban Minneapolis, perhaps inspired by their Olympic teammate Rachel Bootsma’s swim today, had an amazing meet today at the Minnesota State Long Course Championships in a reminder that the sport doesn’t totally halt for the Olympics.
It was the 13-14 girls, who broke four National Age Group Records at the yards version of this meet in March, who were back at it again, as they snapped their own team’s National Record in the 13-14 200 medley relay. They swam a 1:58.34, the first ever of their age under two minutes with only one holdover from the team that broke the record last year.
This group consisted of Zoe Avestruz (29.85), Madison Preiss (33.21), Bre Thorne (28.57), and Rachel Wittmer (26.71). What’s even scarier is that this was a team of 13 year olds, with a single swimmer aged 14 in Thorne.
Here’s how fast this relay is: they now sit just a tenth away from the 15-16 Age Group Record. And that’s not a no-name relay in the older age group; a squad from the Bluefish Swim Club that included NCAA All-Americans Elizabeth Beisel, Laura Sogar, and Alex Forrester. And this group of girls is almost as fast as they are at 13 years old.
We are seeing the continued development of what history might show as the best generation of age group swimmers that maybe one team has ever had.
