Two weeks ago, Crow Canyon headed to the Mission Viejo Nadadores for a college-style dual meet between the two club teams. The event lineup wasn’t exactly the traditional college event lineup; for example, there were three relays—the 400 medley, 200 freestyle, and 400 freestyle relay—but otherwise, the format was like a college meet.
It was scored, with the two club teams splitting the meet. The Mission Viejo Nadadores prevailed with 65 points to Crow Canyon’s 57 points. On the girls’ side, the Crow Canyon Sharks came out on top with 65 points to Mission Viejo’s Nadadores’ 58 points.
Ayden Tan, a NAG record holder, and two-time 10&Under Boys’ Age Group Swammy Award winner, had an excellent meet, swimming multiple best times. Now 12, Tan clocked lifetime bests in the 50/100 backstroke, 100 fly, and 200 IM. He swam 24.89 in the 50 back, moving up to #8 all-time in the age group. His 52.35 100 backstroke was a personal best at the time, but two weeks later he shaved five-hundredths off for a new lifetime best and is now #7.
Tan clocked 1:59.67 in the 200 IM to tie Mason Turner for #15 in the age group, and his 54.00 in the 100 fly ranks #25.
There were many lifetime bests swum at the dual meet; Kaden Wong won the 200 and 500 freestyle; in the former, he swam a lifetime best of 1:40.17, before breaking 1:40 for the first time last week at the Pleasanton Seahawks SC Senior Open. Leading off Crow Canyon’s 400 freestyle relay, Wong also hit a lifetime best 46.82 in the 100 freestyle.
Manuel Díaz was another double-event winner. He swept the butterfly events, swimming a personal best of 50.20 in the 100 fly and 1:55.04 in the 200 fly. It’s a sharp improvement curve for Díaz, who represents Venezuela internationally. Earlier in October, he set his lifetime best at 52.31.
Mission Viejo swept the relays on both the boys’ and girls’ sides. In the boys 400 medley relay, Nolan Baker (51.13), Díaz (56.85), Darren Nguyen (50.94), and Nicholas Lee (45.81) clocked 3:24.73, winning the race by 1.05 seconds. They were even more dominant in the 200 free relay, with Baker (21.48), Lee (21.39), Díaz (21.49), and Nguyen (21.68) re-teaming to win in 1:26.04.
The same quartet were back up in the 400 free relay. Baker led off in 46.31, Lee split 46.69, Nguyen clocked 47.55, and Díaz took over anchor duties, splitting 47.40 to stop the clock at 3:07.95.
On the girls’ side, Cal commits Teagan O’Dell and Gracyn Aquino were key to the Nadadores’ three relay wins, as was UNC commit Chloe Stinson. The trio swam on all three relays and kicked things off with a win in the 400 medley relay. O’Dell swam a season-best 52.01 100 backstroke, then handed off to Vivian Taylor, who split 1:05.64 on breaststroke. Stinson swam 55.16 on fly, then Aquino anchored in 49.95 for a final time of 3:42.76.
Aquino led off the 200 free relay in 23.45, then handed things off to O’Dell, who split 22.16. Stinson swam 23.64, and Mori anchored in 23.39. The quartet clocked 1:32.64, winning by .78 seconds.
O’Dell took over lead-off duties in the 400 free relay in 49.36, with Aquino anchoring in 50.44. Mori and Stinson held down the middle 200 yards, splitting 51.41 and 52.70 respectively to help Mission Viejo win in 3:23.91.
Stinson won the 100 butterfly with a 57.50, while Aquino and O’Dell added two event wins each. Aquino won the 100 backstroke with a new lifetime best of 54.69, then won the 100 free in 50.69, ahead of 14-year-old Katrin Otaegi’s 51.05 for second place.
O’Dell won the 200 freestyle in 1:45.86 and was the only swimmer in the field under 1:50 in the event. She took her second individual event win in the 200 backstroke, swimming 1:53.58. Crow Canyon’s Daniela Linares finished second in 1:57.75, adding another second-place finish as she also took second in the 100 backstroke.
Ages would be nice.