Day 3 of NASA Showcase: NAGs for Marciano, Andrew while Jiang hits 8 wins

Vinny Marciano took down his third National Age Group record on the third night of action in Clearwater, Florida. Meanwhile Michael Andrew celebrated his 15th birthday with a new National Age Group record in the 100 fly and 10-year-old Joy Jiang swept the 10&under races to hit 8 wins on the week.

Other triple-winner for the night were Marciano, 9-year-old Joshua Zuchowski, 11-year-olds Gabriela Pierobon Mays and Christopher Hardt and 14-year-old Kristen Romano.

Live results

Prelims recap

10 & Under

Joy Jiang came in with the top seed in all three of the girls events for 10 & unders, and she defended her top slot in all three. First, she won the 100 back, going 1:01.85 – that’s a 1.5 second improvement from prelims and sits within a second of Regan Smith‘s NAG record.

Jiang also won the 50 breast for Westchester. Her 34.02 took the event by seven tenths, with Payton Baxter touching out Amelia Macholz for second.

Finally, Jiang took the 100 free in 57.66, running away from the field easily. Those three wins bring her to 8 total, and she’ll chase double-digits on the closing night of action tomorrow.

On the boys side, Lance Godard, Joshua Zuchowski and Johnny Bradshaw combined to sweep all the wins. Godard took two wins in the 10-year-old division. The Kansas City Blazer went 1:01.95 to win the 100 back, just under two seconds off the Destin Lasco NAG in the event. He returned to take the 100 free in 55.69. Those were his second and third wins of the week, adding to four second-place finishes.

Bradshaw won the 50 breast for The Fish. He went 32.23 continuing his strong weekend, and also took second behind Godard in the 100 back and 100 free with times of 1:03.32 and 56.22.

In the 9-and-under events, Joshua Zuchowski swept things for the Jupiter Dragons. His 1:05.32 won the 100 back, and he added a 35.38 50-breast win and a 58.58 in the 100 free.

For the girls, Zoe Dixon of Nova won the 9&under 100 back, going 1:06.29 to top the Orcas Allie Hathaway. Swim Florida’s Clarice Spencer put up a 38.98 to win the 50 breast and Grace Olsen of Fenton Area won the 100 free at 1:00.07 with Dixon second.

11-12

In the next age group up, Vinny Marciano continued to be the story for Morris County. The 12-year-old broke his third NAG record of the week in the 100 back, taking down the mark set by Destin Lasco, another talented youth swimmer active in this age group right now.

In addition to that time (51.40, almost a full second faster than the old mark), Marciano put up a quick 100 free, going 48.34 for the win. That is now just .4 off of the NAG record set by Michael Andrew in the race. Marciano already broke an Andrew NAG earlier in this meet with his 50 freestlyle.

Between those two races was the 100 fly, where Marciano took his third title, equaling his total from a night ago. His time of 53.33 in that race is just a second and a half off the NAG record held by Chas Morton from all the way back in 1984.

Aquastar’s Christopher Hardt won three titles for 11-year-olds. His 59.18 crushed the field in the 100 IM. In the next 11-12 event, Hardt went 58.56 to cruise away with the 100 back, and he made it three-straight with a 2:25.74 domination of the 200 breast.

Leo Goldblatt was second to Hardt in that opening 100 IM, and he went on to win two races in the 11-year-old division, the 100 fly (57.34) and 100 free (53.50).

Nicholas Torres won a pair of titles in the age group as well. The 12-year-old took the 100 IM in 57.26 and paced the 200 breast by over 6 seconds at 2:25.74.

For the girls, Southwest’s Gabriela Pierobon Mays won three 11-year-old titles. She won the first two races back-to-back – the 100 IM (1:00.96) and the 100 back (59.36). Pierobon Mays would later add the 100 fly to that list with a dominating 58.34 effort.

In the 12-year-old heats, Cuyahoga Falls’ Giovanna Cappabianca took a pair of titles. She won a nail-biter against Westchester’s Katherine Douglass to open things up in the 100 IM. Cappabianca put up a 58.48 to overcome the top-seeded Douglass’s 58.71. Both girls were within two seconds of the NAG record.

The same duo went 1-2 in the 200 breast, though the margin wasn’t quite so tight. Cappabianca won in 2:19.38; Douglass took second with a 2:21.43.

Another great race was in the 100 free. Christina Ciancolo of Clearwater and Nation’s Capital’s Katie Mack each dropped big chunks of time off their prelims swims and battled it out for the win. Ciancolo touched first in 51.66, just getting in ahead of Mack’s 51.82.

Mack also won the 100 back earlier, going 56.58, which sits just about 1.4 seconds off the NAG mark for 11-12s.

After picking up three wins last night, Chase Travis of the Delaware Swim Team took the 11-year-old heat of the 100 free tonight. Her 54.75 took the gold by just over a second.

Other winners for the girls were 11-year-old Gregorace of Long Island in the 200 breast (she went 2:29.15) and 12-year-old Lauryn Johnson in the 100 fly (at 56.46).

13-14

Michael Andrew had an unusually sparse schedule tonight, scratching out of the 200 breast on his 15th birthday to focus on the 100 fly. Though he turned 15 today, per USA Swimming rules he can still break 13-14 NAGs for the duration of this meet because he was 14 at the start of the meet.

Andrew took advantage of that opportunity with his one swim, going 46.95 to officially take and leave the 13-14 NAG under 47 seconds in the event. His previous record was 47.23 from earlier this year.

The Virginia Gators’ Keith Myburgh won a pair of events in an unusual combination. The 14-year-old went 2:07.75 to win the 200 breaststroke by 8 full seconds, then came back to pace the 1650 free at 15:52.31, showing great endurance in a pair of very dissimilar strokes.

For the girls, 14-year-old Kristen Romano won three races with flying colors. The Town Wrecker swimmer went 55.22 to win the 100 back, the first event for this age group on the night. She had to give everything she had for her second win, as Samantha Suer of Cenango pushed her right up to the finish. In that 100 fly, Romano went 55.73 to touch out Suer’s 55.88 by a finger.

The 100 free was relatively close as well, with Romano going 51.29 to beat Delaware Swim Team’s Serena Derderian by a half-second.

Hometown swimmer Marcella Ruppert-Gomez won the girls 1650. She went 16:46.05 to dominate the race, the only swimmer under 17 minutes. The 13-year-olds’ heat went to Brooke Travis of the Delaware Swim Team.

The West Chicago Sharks’ Garrett Clasen almost had back-to-back wins in the 13-year-old heats. He won the 200 breast at 2:10.69, winning by almost two seconds. In the next 13-14 event, he took a narrow second to Matthew Whelan. Whelan won that 100 fly in 54.11, with Clasen second at 54.22.

Girls 50 breast champ Olivia Paoletti won the 200 distance of that stroke, going 2:18.31. That was in the 14-year-olds’ heat; in the younger final, top seed Julia Kral ran away with things at 2:21.91 for the Academy Bullets of Illinois.

13-year-old Desmon Sachtjen made it a sweep of the backstroke races, taking the 100 back in 53.36. The Sauk Prarie swimmer had already won the 50 and 200 distances earlier in the week.

In the 14-year-old heat of that race, Clearwater’s Vance Sanders put up another great swim, winning in 50.51. That was a couple tenths faster than he went at prelims and won by almost one full second.

Katrina Marty of Southwest won the girls 100 back for 13-year-olds, going 56.13. She also took second in the 100 fly later on in the night to Greenwood’s Kasja Dymek. Dymek went 55.54 for that title to Marty’s 56.73.

Then, in the 100 free, Dymek took second in the night’s closest touchout to Poseidon’s Lindsey Fanz. Fanz put up a 52.44 to win the event, beating Dymek’s 52.45 by a single hundredth to deny her a second win.

In the boys 100 free, William Myhre won the younger heat. He was also the 50 free and 50 breast champ earlier in the meet, and went 48.66 to take the title for St. Charles of Illinois.

The 14-year-old heat went to Daniel Krueger of McFarland in 44.83 with Minnetonka’s John Shelstad second. That time for Krueger is within a second of Michael Andrew‘s NAG record in the event in what’s been a great weekend for the McFarland sprinter.

The boys mile for 13-year-olds went to Brennen Doss of Quest Swimming in 16:36.09.