2021 ESSZ SENIOR SECTIONAL MEET
- March 4-7, 2021
- Triangle Aquatic Center, Cary, NC
- SCY (25y)
- Hosted by TAC Titans
- Friday Psych Sheet – A Flight | B Flight
- Saturday Psych Sheet – A Flight | B Flight
- Sunday Psych Sheet – A Flight | B Flight
- Live Results
16-year-old Claire Curzan of Tac Titans is absolutely on a tear in Cary, North Carolina. Not even an hour after setting a new 15-16 girls SCY 50 free National Age Group Record (21.50), Curzan was back in the water, racing to a new lifetime best 50.03 100 back.
The swim marks Curzan’s 2nd NAG of the night, and her 3rd of the meet. Also of note, the 3 NAGs Curzan has broken thus far at the meet were records that she already held. The previous 15-16 girls SCY 100 back record was held by Curzan with her previous best time of 50.18, which she swam just a few months ago, in December 2020.
In addition to the NAG, the swim also ties Curzan for 9th with Rachel Bootsma in the all-time top performers list in the 100 back. Here is the list of all-time performers in the women’s 100 back:
| Rank | Swimmer | Time |
| 1 | Beata Nelson | 49.18 |
| 2 | Regan Smith | 49.66 |
| 3 | Ally Howe | 49.69 |
| 4 | Kathleen Baker | 49.80 |
| 5 | Janet Hu | 49.93 |
| 6 | Natalie Coughlin | 49.97 |
| 7 | Courtney Bartholomew | 50.01 |
| 8 | Rhyan White | 50.02 |
| T-9 | Rachel Bootsma | 50.03 |
| T-9 | Claire Curzan | 50.03 |
The swim also ties Curzan with Rachel Bootsma for the 20th-fastest performance of all-time in the event.
Given that Curzan has now set a 15-16 NAG in all 3 of her events at these Cary Sectionals this weekend, it only feels right that we start a running list of her NAG performances from the meet.
| Event (SCY) | Previous NAG | New NAG |
| 100 Fly | 49.73 – Claire Curzan (8/8/2020) | 49.51 |
| 50 Free | 21.51 – Claire Curzan (7/17/2020) | 21.50 |
| 100 Back | 50.18 – Claire Curzan (12/12/2020) | 50.03 |
Curzan is entered in the 100 free, 200 back, and 200 IM on Sunday. She’s the current NAG-holder in the 100 free with her personal best of 47.23, and is currently #2 in the 200 back, behind NAG record-holder Regan Smith, who is also the World Record-holder in the LCM 200 back. The dark horse race for Curzan is the 200 IM, which she hasn’t raced SCY since February of 2019. Curzan being the 15-16 NAG record holder in the 100 fly, 100 back, and 100 free points to her having the ability to excel in the 200 IM, so it will be interesting to see what she does tomorrow.
She is incredible!! She will steal the spotlight at trails for sure.
Almost a shame the Olympic team is restricted to 2 swimmers per event. We’ve got so many swimmers deserving of spots on the Team
Almost a shame? Definitely a shame.
You’re right, wish I could edit my comment. It would be awesome to see a couple American sweeps on the Olympic podium
Not to be a downer but in what event would there be an American sweep. 3 girls into finals in any event would be an enormous accomplishment. I agree there are 3 Americans worthy of being an Olympian in almost every race and it would be nice to go back to 1976 rules, although with the same event lineup as today, but the USA isn’t the dominant force it was back then and there wouldn’t be any American sweeps.
Women’s 100 back there’d be a good chance of a sweep if Kylie Masse has a bad swim, which is always possible at the Olympics. If you had told someone on this site that Cate Campbell was going to lose the 100 free to Simone Manuel and Katinka Hosszu was going to lose the 200 back to Maya DiRado, they would’ve called you insane. Same with predicting Balandin’s 200 breast. Anything could happen. Bacon/Smith/Curzan/Baker/Smoliga would all be potential medal threats in Tokyo.
You simply can’t leave Kylie McKeown out of the 100 back discussion. A few months ago she swam a 57.9!
I was about to answer Ecoach, the 100 back!, But you beat me to it! Some really fast Americans are going to be left at home.
She is going to be a star — hopefully as early as Trials and the Olympics.
Agree and think she wins the 100m fly at trials.