2020 Summer Sprint Trial Meet – Sierra Marlins
- Saturday, August 1 – Sunday, August 2, 2020
- Folsom Aquatics Center / Folsom, CA
- Short Course Yards (SCY) format
- Full results
Future USC teammates Ben Dillard and Hallie Kinsey each won events at the Sierra Marlins Summer Sprint meet, along with rising high school junior Rosie Murphy.
Best times were somewhat limited with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic still restricting training and competition. Meet documents show a number of special procedures, including social distancing on deck and on bleachers. The meet ran with just 19 swimmers per session, with swimmers able to stay in their lane after their event for a quick three lengths of cool down before the next heat.
Dillard, a recently-graduated high school senior, swam and won 100-yard races in all four strokes. Best-known as one of the top breaststrokers in the high school class of 2020, Dillard won that event by a wide margin, going 56.36 to win by 3.5 seconds. That’s well off a career-best 52.74 for Dillard, but isn’t a bad time for an in-season swim. Dillard has generally been a very productive taper swimmer, going 55.7 in-season last fall before hitting 52 twice at Winter Juniors only about a month later.
Dillard also won the 100 back (53.73), 100 fly (51.59) and 100 free (47.35) by wide margins. The #13-ranked recruit in the nation, Dillard should join the USC Trojans in the fall under new head coach Jeremy Kipp.
Also joining that program is Kinsey, the two-year standout for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Kinsey went to high school in California and swam for the Sierra Marlins some as an age grouper. Kinsey won the women’s 100 fly in 55.94. That’s also quite a ways off her career-best (52.51 from 2020 SECs), but came amid a four-event lineup.
Sierra Marlins 16-year-old Rosie Murphy won 100s of the other three strokes, touching out Kinsey by three tenths in the 100 free, 52.85 to 53.10. Murphy, a rising high school junior in the class of 2022, tier her personal-best with that 52.85. Murphy had previously hit the time in the spring of 2019 during California’s high school postseason.
Murphy also won the 100 back and 100 breast. Her 100 back (54.37) was just a tick off a personal-best of 54.33, and her 100 breast (1:06.64) did set a new career-best by two tenths of a second. Murphy was also 56.24 to take second behind Kinsey in the 100 fly.
Where are all the marlins college swimmers?