Miriam Sheehan Breaks Puerto Rican National Record In 100 BK At Iowa Senior Champs

2023 Iowa Swimming Long Course Championships

  • July 20-23, 2023
  • University of Iowa CRWC Aquatic Center, Iowa City, IA
  • LCM (50 meters)
  • Results on Meet Mobile: “2023 IA Long Course Championships”

The 2023 Iowa Swimming Long Course Championships were held this past weekend in Iowa City, Iowa. The Iowa Flyers Swim Club defended their combined team title with a total of 44877 points, putting them well over 1000 points ahead of the runner-up team Greater Des Moines YMCA.

Team Scores (Combined):

  1. Iowa Flyers Swim Club – 4877
  2. Greater Des Moines YMCA – 3543.5
  3. Des Moines Swimming Federation – 2402.5
  4. Central Iowa Aquatics – 2283
  5. Piranhas Swim Club – 2020.5

The meet saw seven Iowa Swimming LSC records fall, with five being relay records and two set in individual events. 

Among the record-breakers for the girls was NC State commit Miriam Sheehan, who trains with the Dubuque Area Swimmin’ Hurricanes. Sheehan dropped over a second in the 100 backstroke to post a time of 1:01.70, establishing a new Puerto Rican national record and Iowa Swimming LSC record in the process.

Sheehan, a Tokyo 2020 Olympian, began representing Puerto Rico internationally at the age of 13. With the addition of the 100 backstroke, Sheehan now owns a total of four individual long course national records including the 50 fly, 100, fly, and 50 back. 

In addition to winning the 100 backstroke, Sheehan also took 1st in the 50 free (25.96), 200 free (2:04.82), 100 fly (1:00.20), and 100 free (56.40). Her time in the 200 freestyle was also a personal best, bringing her within half a second of the Puerto Rican record of 2:04.37. 

On the boy’s side, Joe Polyak from the Iowa Flyers took down the Iowa Swimming LSC record in the 200 IM with an enormous four second time drop. The Minnesota recruit stopped the clock at 2:03.38 to punch his ticket to the 2024 Olympic Trials and absolutely shatter Drew Reiter’s previous record time of 2:05.48. 

Polyak also collected victories in the 400 IM (4:32.69), 100 breast (1:04.81), and 200 breast (2:20.17). All three were best times, with his 400 IM coming in nearly ten seconds under his previous best set last summer. 

Polyak was also a member of two of the boys 17-18 record-setting relays. In both the 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay, he teamed up with Owen Chiles, Holden Carter, and John Weigel to post times of 1:45.97 and 3:52.22, respectively.

The Iowa Flyers’ 15-16 boys got in on the action as they cracked the LSC records in the 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay, and 400 freestyle relay. The team of Hayden Hakes, Winston Fan, Parker Macho, and Philip Berry-Stoelzle swam on all three, hitting record-breaking times of 1:49.64, 4:01.45, and 3:40.40. 

Among the top performers for the younger swimmers was 14-year-old Charlotte Qualley of the Greater Des Moines YMCA, who won a total of six individual events. She dropped over three seconds in the 400 IM to win the event by nearly five seconds (5:17.02), while in the 200 backstroke she hit a best time by almost four seconds to win by a three-second margin (2:25.32).

Desmond Ortega from the Rams Swim Club won six events on the boy’s side of the 13-14 age group. He saw huge time drops across the board, including knocking over 13 seconds off his previous best in the 200 IM (2:19.54)  to take 2nd to Wesley Mooney (2:18.61). 

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JayR
11 months ago

Good for Miriam!! But to the editor: she no longer is a member of the Puerto Rico federation. So…no new record..another blunder for president Fernando Delgado that actually pushed her out of the federation with his continued and disastrous management of swimmers from Puerto Rico and federation affairs.

NONA
11 months ago

Yeahhhhhhh IFLY

Carol
11 months ago

Go IFLY!!!