Curzan and Huske Light It Up with Huge Personal Bests on Final Night in Cary

2021 TAC TITANS LONG COURSE PREMIER MEET

Claire Curzan of the TAC Titans was responsible for the first eye-popping swim of the night in Cary on Sunday, blasting a 59.37 lifetime best in the 100 back to move to #4 all-time in the 15-16 age group and tie for the #12 performer slot in American history. Her time also jumps her to #5 in the world this season, just ahead of World Record-holder Regan Smith.

2020-2021 LCM Women 100 Back

2Regan
Smith
USA57.6407/29
3Kylie
Masse
CAN57.7006/19
4Kathleen
Dawson
GBR58.0805/23
5Olivia
Smoliga
USA58.3105/15
View Top 26»

The second huge swim came shortly after, as Torri Huske of Arlington Aquatic Club took down Simone Manuel‘s 17-18 NAG record in the 50 free to go 24.44, making her the #6 U.S. performer ever and the #9 performer in the world this season. Curzan tied Huske with a 24.44 of her own, but was DQ’d for a 15-meter violation. Read more about the race here.

Huske returned shortly after for a big 200 IM, just missing her lifetime best with a very solid 2:11.65 to touch well ahead of Gamecock Aquatics’ Emma Barksdale (2:14.09). Huske had splits of 27.8/33.7 on the front half and 38.1/31.9 coming home. Her 2:11.18 from November’s U.S. Open still stands at #11 in the world this season.

Justin Ress of Wolfpack Elite picked up a season-best in the 100 back, swimming to a two-second win with a 53.30. Ress’s old season-best was a 53.37, which had him at #8 in the world this season (though this doesn’t move him up any places).

2020-2021 LCM Men 100 Back

EvgenyRUS
Rylov
07/27
51.98
2Kliment
Kolesnikov
RUS52.0007/27
3Ryan
Murphy
USA52.1907/27
4Thomas
Ceccon
ITA52.3007/27
5Xu
Jiayu
CHN52.3503/07
6Hunter
Armstrong
USA52.4806/14
7Mitch
Larkin
AUS52.7512/13
8Shaine
Casas
USA52.7606/14
View Top 27»

NCAP 18-year-old Jakob Frick shaved over a second off of his prelims time, and also a second off of his old PR from November in the men’s 200 breast. Frick posted a 2:15.91; he also had the Wave I cut, and now he’s less than a second off of the Wave II cut.

OTHER WINNERS

  • Duke’s Sally Foley nabbed the 200 breast victory, clocking a 2:33.56 to come a little over a second off of her best.
  • Matt Josa, swimming unattached, took two-tenths off of his prelims swim to claim the men’s 50 free in 23.30.
  • In the men’s 200 IM, Sam Stewart of the YMCA Hub Fins posted a 2:01.39 for the win ahead of TAC Titans’ Michael Cotter (2:03.95). That’s a new Wave I cut for Cotter.
  • Lance Norris won the men’s 1500 by almost 20 seconds for the TAC Titans, going 15:53.72. That’s about 17 seconds off of his best from October.
  • In the women’s 1500 free, TAC Titans’ Caroline Pennington and NCAP’s Paige McKenna raced to the finish. Pennington won in 16:37.02, just ahead of McKenna’s 16:37.89.

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Swimdad4
2 years ago

Wait wait wait… hold on one second. Did Tori and Claire tie in both prelims and finals in the 50 free? I understand that Claire was DQ’d but that is beyond amazing.

ZanBai
2 years ago

Can we get some interviews with them?

Covid is not Gone
2 years ago

Also off topic; why did the event winner interviewer man wear his mask below his nose for the first 3 days and then not wear one at all one the last day? He stood very close the swimmers and shared his microphone with them. Glad to see that the swimmers were smart enough to be wearing theirs.

Penguin
2 years ago

I apologize for being off-topic but….

Dear SwimSwam and fellow commenters, my dream requests are:

Bruno Fratus tattoo tour
What happened to Bobo Gigi
Coverage of a KL practice
Trials predictions for this year’s NCAA stars
Dean’s plans for the next few years
Greatest swimmers to never make Olympics

USA 4x100 Medley Gold Medel 2021
Reply to  Penguin
2 years ago

josh schneider is comes to mind for someone who never made the Olympics

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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