2018 Classic Finals
- Saturday-Sunday, January 13-14th
- Cincinnati, OH
- Short course yards
Cody Bybee, the #4 recruit for the class of 2018, and Justin Grender, who isn’t ranked in the top 20 but is definitely one of the top recruits in the class of 2018, raced to a photo finish in the 100 free at the 2018 Classic Finals high school meet in Cincinnati, OH. Bybee, an Arizona State recruit, held off Grender, a Virginia recruit, to touch the wall .1 seconds ahead, 44.84 to 44.94. Bybee’s 1st 50 gave him an edge, he went out 21.33 compared to Grender’s 21.72. Grender then outsplit Bybee 23.22 to 23.51 coming home, but it was just barely not enough to give him the win.
The 2 also raced each other in the 200 medley relay, however, they did not swim the same leg. Grender led off his relay with a 23.20, a little off his lifetime best 50 back of 22.36, which he swam leading off the 200 medley relay at Winter Juniors last month. Bybee, on the other hand, swam the fly leg of his relay posting a quick 21.34. Grender’s relay went on to win the event, while Bybee’s came in 3rd.
Grender also swam (and won) the 400 medley relay, 100 back, 50 free, 200 back, and 200 free relay. He led off the 400 medley relay in a 48.86, which was just a little slower than he went in the actual 100 back, 48.71. Both times come very close to his lifetime best of 48.34. He took the 50 free in a 20.44, also pretty close to his lifetime best of 20.01. Grender made waves in early December, when he split 19.5 on his high school’s intrasquad meet. At this meet, Grender split 19.64 anchoring his team’s 200 free relay. Finally, in the 200 back, he sped to a 1:45.69 finish, just over half a second off his lifetime best of 1:44.93. Grender also participated on the 400 free relay, but the relay was DQ’d, and the splits are unavailable.
Bybee took 1st in the 200 fly, posting a 1:48.78. That time is a ways off his personal best of 1:45.27. He posted pretty consistent splits – 25.07/27.62/27.51/28.58. Bybee then led off his team’s 400 free relay, posting a 44.96, just barely slower than his time in the 100 free earlier in the meet. His relay team ended up coming in 6th.
A High School meet with 50′ & 200’s stroke?
Is this something new?
It’s an annual meet, at least for the past couple years it has been. It’s just a big invite in Ohio that lots of teams go to. You can find high school invites that have more than the offficial high school events pretty much all over the country, but as far as I can tell there seems to be like one per area. Given that, it would be pretty easy not to notice them unless you looked at every meet on meetmobile.
This year was the 35th annual meet, over 2,000 athletes and 9 prelims sites. All come together for 1 finals session. It’s a great meet with tons of fast swims. Here’s a link to the full meet. https://www.swimmeet.com/classic18/
Largest High School meet in the country. Prelims at 8(?) pools, top 16 finals from combined prelim results at St Xavier. Been around for decades. Extremely competitive and exciting meet.