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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Mikayla Tan has been absolutely on fire in 2022, asserting herself as one of the top age group stars in the United States with some scintillating swims in the girls’ breaststroke events.
Despite only turning 12 earlier this year, Tan has been delivering some of the quickest times we’ve ever seen in the girls’ 11-12 age group of late, including swimming the second-fastest time ever in the age group in the 200 breast (SCY) before turning 12 back in February.
Tan’s talents were on full display earlier this week, as her club, DART Swimming, hosted a two-day “Post HS” on Monday and Tuesday that featured both short course yards and long course meters racing.
The highlight of Tan’s swims came in the SCY 200 breast, where she ended up taking down the 11-12 NAG with a time of 2:15.38, but her performance in the LCM 100 breast was also something truly remarkable.
Tan recorded a time of 1:12.75, which not only lowered her previous best (1:13.11) and moved her up to third all-time in 11-12 history, but it was also the fastest time a swimmer has produced in the age group in nearly 24 years.
The 11-12 NAG belongs to Carly Geehr, who swam a time of 1:09.87 back at the U.S. Summer Nationals in 1997. The second-fastest time is a 1:11.96 from Annie Babicz in 1998, and now the third-best is Tan, who overtakes the likes of Annie Zhu, Kristen Caverly, Laura Davis, Liliy Willis and Sophia Umstead in the all-time U.S. 11-12 rankings.
All-Time U.S. Performers, Girls’ 11-12 100 Breaststroke (LCM)
- Carly Geehr (ROSE), 1:09.87 – 1997
- Annie Babicz (UN), 1:11.96 – 1998
- Mikayla Tan (DART), 1:12.75 – 2022
- Annie Zhu (LGAC), 1:12.82 – 2007
- Kristen Caverly (NOVA), 1:12.83 – 1997
- Laura Davis (TERA), 1:12.91 – 1997
- Lilly Willis (TAC), 1:12.99 – 2019
- Sophia Umstead (MLA), 1:13.05 – 2019
- Isabelle Najjar (EST), 1:13.23 – 2014
- Eva Crouse (BEAR), 1:13.30 – 2012
In addition to her NAG record in the short course 200 breast and this 100 breast long course swim, Tan also swam a best time of 1:03.35 in the SCY 100 breast to move into sixth in 11-12 history and dropped six seconds in the LCM 200 IM (2:24.20) to tie for 28th all-time among 11-12s.
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Too bad they couldn’t be bothered to find Carly’s 200 time when they created the 11-12 200 record. Jim pretty sure she broke 2:30 that summer.
Nope, but Laura and Kristen were amazing at the 200. Both were 2:31-2:32ish I think!
What was in the water back in 1997-1998?
Several fast girls.
It was the Amanda Beard effect!