2024 FLORIDA SWIMMING SPRING SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 7-10, 2024
- FAST, Ocala, Florida
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
7-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky remains on the psych sheets for this week’s Florida Swimming Spring Senior Champs for a single swim on Sunday, but she’s not the only Olympic champion racing this week in Ocala.
Bobby Finke, who won gold in the 800 and 1500 freestyles in Tokyo, opened racing on Thursday with a best time of 8:41.92 in the 1000 yard free. While that’s slower than some of the splits he’s had en route to some of the fastest 1650 frees in history, it is the fastest swim he’s ever had in the 1000 yard free event. That’s significant because throughout his college career, he was never a world-beater in-season (where swimmers usually swim the 1000 free). His best time in a 1000 yard free event was an 8:56.58 from a January dual meet against Auburn in January 2022.
On Thursday, he was 15 seconds faster than that.
The swim by Finke confirms that he’s not going to the Pro Swim Series in Westmont, where he was also entered to race in long course this week. Ledecky is also not in Westmont, though some parts of the Florida pro group, including Thursday’s 100 fly winner Caeleb Dressel, did.
That is the Florida LSC Record for Finke.
The top junior-aged finisher in the race was 16-year-old Ethan Ekk from ATAC in Tallahassee. He swam 8:56.73, which is a nearly 10-second improvement over his previous best of 9:06.45 done at this meet last year. Ekk, who along with his siblings will race at the Canadian Olympic Trials this summer, is now the 13th-ranked 15-16 of all-time in the 1000 yard free.
Ekk came back later in the night to anchor ATAC’s winning 800 free relay with a 1:35.87 anchor split. He was 1:35.85 in December on a flat-start at Winter Juniors.
He teamed up with his younger brother Owen, 15, who led off in 1:39.38, Ryder Gentry (1:37.49), and Nathan Castano (1:38.58) for the win in 6:31.32, which was 7.4 seconds ahead of the runner-up relay from Bolles. That relay is a new 15-18 LSC Record, taking Bolles’ prior mark from 2021.
Clare Custer of the Sarasota Sharks, one of the country’s legendary distance club programs, won the girls’ 1000 free in 9:51.49. That knocks 7 seconds off her previous best time.
The 16-year-old Custer is the younger sister of Liam Custer, a US National Age Group Record breaker who represents Ireland internationally and is currently a sophomore at Stanford.
15-year-old Lilliana Krstolic finished 2nd in 9:54.00, which was her best time by 14 seconds. The top of this race all had huge drops – Neala Klein was 3rd in 9:56.72, a 16.5 second improvement; Aubrey Tuthill was 4th in 9:59.40, a 1.7 second improvement, Lily Doyle was 5th in 10:01.47, a 13.5-second improvement, and Karrington Hansen was 6th in 10:05.38, a 20.5-second improvement.
The Sharks swept the night, finishing with a dominant win in the 800 free relay in 7:19.13, including a 1:48.99 leadoff from 16-year-old Brynn Lavigueur. They won that race by almost 8 seconds.
Team Scores After Day 1
Top 5 Boys:
- Sarasota Sharks – 393
- Bolles – 297
- Fast Falcons – 272
- ATAC – 151
- Planet Swim Aquatics – 141
Top 5 Girls:
- Sarasota Sharks – 331
- Fast Falcons – 242
- Bolles School Sharks – 221
- ATAC – 103
- Planet Swim Aquatics – 97
I would bet money that Finke didn’t swim a suited 1000 outside of his 1650 splits, so the time drop shouldn’t be weighed too heavily
Dang, it’s like right there in the article!
I would bet money that you didn’t read the article.