15 year-old Claire Curzan set a new personal best time, as well as a new 15-16 National Age Group record and a North Carolina High School Athletic Association record, with her 50.35 in the 100 fly today at the NCHSAA 4A State Championships today at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, NC.
Curzan, a sophomore at Cardinal Gibbons, helped her team to a 6th-place finish. She also won the 100 back with a time of 51.38, a time that appears to put her at #5 all-time in the 15-16 age group, although it’s just a bit off her personal best from last year. Her lifetime best of 51.23 from last year ranks her #2 all-time in the 13-14 age group, behind only Regan Smith and her mark of 51.09.
Curzan swam on Cardinal Gibbons’ 3rd-place 200 medley, where she led off with a 24.54 backstroke leg and anchored their 200 free relay, which also finished 3rd, in 21.71.
She nearly ended up snagging two national high school records, as her 100 fly time lowered the mark of 51.29 previously set by Tori Huske last year, while her backstroke time broke the mark of 51.43 previously held by Olivia Smoliga, but not the 51.38 Phoebe Bacon swam two weeks ago.
That 100 fly time is a new personal best for her, with her previous best time of 50.64 coming from last March, when she was still 14. She also held the previous 15-16 NAG record and the NCHSAA record, with those marks previously standing at 50.87 and 51.60, respectively. Curzan swims for the TAC Titans for her club team.
Full recaps of the NCHSAA meets will be coming soon, but Green Hope swept both the men’s and women’s titles, with the men wining by nearly 100 points over Panther Creek and the rest of the field.
50.35 would be my HS boys team record, just a bit off a state record iirc. And we’ll be lucky to see a 23.4 fly medley leg or 24.5 back medley leg, let alone more than 1-2 21.7 50 efforts. That’s crazy!
That’s a filthy swim. Great signs for big things this summer
Ah, the worst bleachers in America! Hope TAC renovates those soon. They’ve got the potential to play host to some big-time meets with all the renovations they’ve been doing, but their bleachers are still a tragedy.
I’m old enough to remember when that was a good college men’s time. My lord.
Mark Spitz only went 49+ in HS and most of his college career; I remember when John Trembley went 50.5 and blew away the field in HS at the Easterns. Won’t be long before we see a woman going 48+
We’re old AF.
That was a master class in well timed walls.
Imagine the feeling to go 53 low 100 fly in a high school meet and get absolutely smoked.
She looks tired and I mean that in a good way like she’s putting in the work that might get her that Olympic birth in this event in a few months. She swims really big and looks like a LC swimmer just by her DPS and efficiency. I was surprised to see she came back in 26.91. That means she was out in 23.44 and 3.5 seconds is decent splitting but 2.9-3.1 is pretty much perfect. I thought it looked like she finished harder than splits suggest but I think that just means she has really good ez speed cause 23.4 is no joke.
She has a 56.5 in her which should be enough for the team, but this event… Read more »
Incredible bunch of talented juniors last year ….one of which is Curzan
Not questioning the time in anyway, but that looked like the slowest (smoothest/easiest) 50.anything 100 fly I’ve ever seen.
I think they found this in the dictionary under “easy speed.”