2026 Columbia Spring Sectionals
- March 12-15, 2026
- Columbia, MO
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Mobile “Region VIII Speedo Spring Sectionals”
Saturday brought us the third day of competition for the 2026 Spring Sectionals In Columbia, Missouri. Age group standouts such as Lexie D’Amico, Ty Thomas, and Ellis Crisci brought their A game to the Mizzou Aquatics Center.
Crisci started out his session with a decisive 500 freestyle victory. The 2027 Texas commit fired off a new lifetime best of 4:17.07 en route to first place by nearly ten seconds. Crisci competes with the Tsunami Swim Team of KC. This is the #1 time for a 17-year-old boy this season in the event, bypassing Trent Allen of Carmel Swim Club’s 4:17.16. The top high schooler remains Crisci’s future Longhorn teammate Luca Mijatovic.
Later on, Crisci returned to the pool for a tough 200 fly double. He once again podiumed and achieved a new best time, touching in a swift 1:46.65. This improved on his 1:49.02 seed and earned him second place behind 16-year-old Ty Thomas. In his own right, Thomas went a monster PB of 1:44.39 in the morning before hitting 1:45.04 at night. In addition to the 200 fly victory, Thomas was also the lone sub-47 100 back performer of the evening in 46.94.
On the girl’s side, Lexie D’Amico continued a strong showing in Missouri. At 14 years old, she beat an older field in the 100 breast with a 1:00.75. This falls just .01 shy of her 1:00.74 lifetime best from Winter Juniors, which is the #1 13-14 girls time in the country for 2025-26.
Crisci’s teammate Lucy Velte had a win of her own in the 200 fly, hitting 1:55.68 to get gold by two seconds. NC State Commit Zoe Smith rounded out the girl’s winners. She had a speedy 100 back win, clocking a 52.30 lifetime best.
The one boy’s event non won by Thomas or Crisci went to the host team’s Ryan Coughenour in the 100 breast. Coming in with a seed time of 54.15, Coughenour dropped that down to 54.15 in the finals, a good sign for his future Florida State Seminoles team.
Bob Bowman really collecting all of the fastest distance swimmers like the infinity stones
I wouldn’t be opposed to him picking up a couple more sprinters. Just a crazy thought I had
Austin Carpenter is coming in the fall right? But yes texas needs more sprinters
Yeah so that’s 3 that prioritize the 50/100 free in some regard. Gould/Fente-Damers/Carpenter