COLLEGE STATION SECTIONALS
- February 28th-March 3rd, 2019
- Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
- 25y (SCY) prelims/50m (LCM) finals
A new National Age Group Record in the 200 meters free on a relay leadoff from Gianluca Urlando highlighted the opening distance night at the 2019 College Station Sectionals.
Urlando swam a 1:47.73 to lead off DART’s winning 800 free relay, breaking the old 15-16 national mark fo 1:48.57 set by Carson Foster last year. (Read more about the record-setting swim here). That led his team to a finishing time of 7:34.27, which is 9 seconds better than the runners-up from KATY Aquatics in suburban Houston (7:43.38).
Metroplex Aquatics from Dallas won the women’s 800 free relay in 8:22.01, which included a 2:02.28 leadoff split from Arizona State commit Lindsay Looney. That’s a second-and-a-half improvement over her previous best time in the event, which ranks her 9th nationally among all American 18 & unders so far this season (the top 10 18 & unders this season are, ironically, all 17 or younger).
The 2 individual events on the day were the newest 2 Olympic events, the women’s 1500 free and men’s 800 free, and 1 swimmer became among the first to hit an Olympic Trials cut in the races.
Magnolia 18-year old Kaitlynn Sims won the women’s 1500 in 16:44.54. While that swim is about 12 seconds short of her personal best, it is the first time that she’s cleared the Olympic Trials standard of 16:49.19 in the qualifying period. She’s committed to join the Michigan Wolverines in the fall.
Texas A&M post-grad Sarah Gibson, who usually doesn’t stretch this far into distance, took 2nd in 16:56.37.
The boys’ 800 free was won by Urlando’s DART teammate Connor Daniels, who swam 8:15.72. Loveland’s Jacob Ores was 2nd in 8:16.04, while the top-finishing Texans were William Coakley (8:26.82) and Tyler Kopp (8:27.20), both from KATY Aquatics and both with about 3 seconds improvements on their lifetime bests.
