Claire Curzan Shaves Time Off of Her 11-12 NAGs in 50y and 100y Fly

2017 EASTERN SECTION ZONE AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Greensboro, NC
• March 16-19, 2017
• Live results

While the NCAA women were tearing things up in Indianapolis, 12-year-old Claire Curzan of Raleigh Swimming Association took down two 11-12 NAG records. Curzan held the records prior– at this point, pretty much, any new best times for her in sprint butterfly mark a NAG record.

Curzan swam times of 24.38 in the 50 fly and 54.00 in the 100 fly, easily winning her events in the 11-12 races in Greensboro. She trimmed some time off of her old records, which were 24.54 and 54.38 before this. In fact, when she went 54.38 last month, she also broke Ella Eastin’s NAG in the 50 split of her 100 fly.

SPLIT COMPARISON

Curzan 100 fly, December 2016

• 25.14 – 29.43 (54.57)

Curzan 100 fly, February 2017

• 24.66 – 29.72 (54.38)

Curzan 100 fly, March 2017

• 25.07 – 28.93 (54.00)

Curzan looks to be learning how to swim a better back half, utilizing a significantly stronger 2nd 50 than on her previous NAG record-breaking swims. That isn’t to say her speed has been hindered with this new strategy, as evidenced by her 24.38 in the individual 50.

Age group star Regan Smith held the record at 54.73 before Curzan broke it in December. Smith, Curzan, and Miriam Sheehan are the only two 11-12 girls to have ever broken 55 seconds in this event.

Curzan has also won several other events at this meet, which concludes tonight. Of her wins, she scored best times in the 100 free (51.98) and 50 back (25.99), while also going 58.20 to win the 100 IM (though it was just off of her best). Curzan’s 25.99 in the 50 back now ranks her 4th all-time 11-12 behind Regan Smith, Janet Hu, and Miriam Sheehan.