Presenting our Weekly Wonders from the weekend of December 28-30th, 2018:
Sydney Shoeck, 10, Rockwood Swim Club (RSCA-OZ): 200 IM, 2:25.43 – At Rockwood’s 2018 Holiday Distance Intrasquad meet, the 10-year-old Shoeck dropped over three seconds in her 200 IM, from 2:28.77 to 2:25.43, winnin ml g the event by almost 14 seconds. She also went a best time in her 100 free, 500 free. In the 100, she dropped over a second (from 1:06.15 to 1:04.94) and in her 500 she dropped over eight seconds (6:20.20 to 6:11.88).
Nathanial Carlos, 16, Mexico Tiger Sharks (METS-NI):50 free, 22.14 – At the 2018 WEBS-FAST Niagara Junior Classic, the 16-year-old dropped two-tenths of a second in his 50 free (from 22.34 to 22.14). However, coming into 2019, he had never broken 23.90. At the same meet, he also went a best time in his 200 free (1:54.06).
Nate Sukeena, 15, Eagle Swim Team (EST-MD): 200 fly, 2:00.44 – Sukeena closed 2017 with a 2:14.49 in the 200 fly, and exactly a year later, his time is down 14 seconds. The 15-year-old dropped a minimum of two seconds every time he raced a 200 fly in 2018, including three between his second-to-last swim in October, and his 2:00.44 at the 2019ish Speedo IMX Distance Champs the last weekend of December.
Kyndal McFadden, 11, Lander Swim Club (LAN-WY):100 back, 1:10.42 – At the 2018 Lander Happy New Year meet, the 11-year-old dropped over two seconds off her previous best time of 1:12.78. However, since the end of 2017, she’s dropped a whopping 12 seconds; she actually dropped about two seconds each of the last four times she raced the 100 back. At the same meet, McFadden went additional bests in the 50 back (32.81) and 50 fly (32.44).
Connor Jones, 12, Katy Aquatic Team for Youth (KATY-GU): 200 back, 2:10.42 – At the 2019 Katy Quad Invite, Jones dropped over three seconds in his 200 back. He ended 2017 with a 2:24.72 in the event, then dropped well over three seconds in January 2018 (2:21.08), then over six more in October 2018 (2:13.88) before shaving it further to 2:10.42 last weekend. At the same meet, he also dropped three-quarters of a second in the 50 free (24.80).
Dani Ghine, 13, Eagle Swim Team (EST-MD): 400 IM, 4:32.83 – Ghine was part of a group of Eagle Swim Team members who topped the age group leaderboards in many events this week (including Nate Sukeena, listed above). In her 400 IM at the 2019ish Speedo IMX Distance Champs, she dropped three seconds off her previous best time (4:35.94), swum over a year ago. It was only her second 400 IM of 2018, and the first was 4:46.47. At the same meet, Ghine also went best times in the 500 free ( 5:02.35), 1000 (10:46.44), and 1650 (18:00.79).
Reminder: The Weekly Wonders column is a celebration of age-group swimming, where new champions are made every day. Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds. By association, it also celebrates their coaches and their teams. The Weekly Wonders column, therefore, amounts to a pat on the back for a job well done, and hopefully encourages swimmers of all levels to continue to reach from within to get to that next level.
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