Andy Arteta, Nico Deferrari, Macarena Ceballos, Kristel Kobrich and Virginia Bardach each won three events to highlight Argentina’s national championship meet.
Arteta and Kobrich ruled the distance races, sweeping the 400, 800 and 1500s for men and women, respectively. Arteta was 8:22.73 to win the 800 by three seconds, 4:00.23 to take the 400 one day later and 15:24.92 to win the 1500 by more than 15 seconds on day 3. Kobrich first won the 400 in 4:15.45, jumped up to take the 800 by more than 20 seconds in 8:47.13 the next day and capped the meet with a 16:28 blowout win (by more than a minute) in the 1500 on the final day of racing.
Deferrari won a bit of an eclectic mix of events. His 2:01.28 won the 200 fly over Arteta by five seconds on day 2. The next day, he went 2:07.07 to win the 200 IM, and his third win came in the 50 backstroke, where he went 26.02.
Ceballos swept the breaststroke races, going 31.83 in the 50, 1:08.76 in the 100 and 2:29.79 in the 200. The shortest and longest distances were extremely close, while the 100 was a blowout. Julia Sebastian pushed hard for wins in the 50 and 200, coming within .09 seconds in the longest breaststroke race. But the 100 was all Ceballos, with Sebastian taking the top qualifying spot out of prelims but scratching the final.
Bardach ground out three wins in some of the toughest races. All three of her golds came at 200 meters. Bardach was 2:20.26 in the 200 IM, 2:22.36 in the 200 back and 2:17.44 in the 200 fly.
