Courtesy: Lake Oswego Swim Club
Lake Oswego Swim Club’s Nick Simons not only swept the backstroke races at Winter Juniors – West this weekend, he did it in a path blazed by Oregon swim legend Olympian Jacob Pebley the entire way.
On Friday night, Simons broke Pebley’s 10-year-old 17-18 and Open Oregon records during a relay lead-off in the 400 MR, taking the record down from 47.34 to 46.84. On Saturday in the prelims, Simons again reduced the record by .19 and then took another .26 off in finals for a winning time of 46.39.
Simons wasn’t finished with taking on Pebley’s records though. In the 200 backstroke on Saturday, Simons had his sights on the meet record, which coincidentally is also Jacob Pebley‘s, and is the Oregon 17-18 and Open record as well. Simons cut 1.98 seconds from his entry time, narrowly missing the record by .19. The swim puts him at #4 all-time for 17-year-olds.
All-Time 17-year-old 200 backstroke SCY
1. Ryan Murphy 1:38.15
2. Carson Foster 1:40.07
3. Jack Conger 1:40.41
4. Nick Simons 1:40.98
5. Clark Beach 1:41.31
Simons is currently ranked 19th all-time in the 17-18 age group.
Because of Oregon’s extremely restrictive Covid-related swimming pool policies, Simons spent a year in Las Vegas with coach Michael Kinross of Sandpipers of Nevada and was the youngest male semi-finalist at Trials (placing 16th in the 100 back). The National Junior Teamer returned to Oregon this fall after World Cup in order to swim again with his original team and longtime coach Emily Melina before he graduates and swims for University of Tennessee in the fall of 2022.
This doesn’t make a ounce of sense. Why in the hell would Nick leave the Sandpipers of Nevada, they are on fire at another level with Bella Sims and Katie Grimes and that is not even a little bit open for debate and then leave for a team in Oregon that has never produced any talent.
Hold up there buddy. Maybe look at this from a child’s perspective and not a coaches one. Kids don’t have the choice or the finances to just live and train whereever? Covid was obviously the reason and he was lucky to get to move. He probably missed Oregon and wanted to go home. Or his parents needed to go back. Anyhow looks like Nick’s doing ok no matter where he swims. Good luck to him
He moved from the sandpipers, because he was swimming for them for some kind of a trial, or training. He always was swimming for Lako (LOSC), and he just went back.