Eliza Wallace Earns #10 Spot All-Time in 15-16 100 Breaststroke

2024 SwimMAC November LC/SC Invite

• November 16-17
• Charlotte, NC
• Prelims LCM (50 meters)/ Finals SCY (25 yards)
• Results

SwimMac Carolina hosted its annual November Invite last month, and some of the top swimmers in the nation converged on Charlotte, North Carolina for the meet. Among more than 10 swimmers that ended up in the top 10 in the national age-group rankings, Eliza Wallace (girls 15-16 100 Breast) and Mike Rice (boys 15-16 50 free) each set nation-leading times in one of their events, and they swim on the same club team.

Wallace, a junior at Mecklenburg Swim Association and a Tennessee commit, set her top time in the 100 breast in 59.36. This was a new best time for Wallace, who had only been under 1:00 twice before this swim, and came into the meet holding a best time of 59.67 from February of this year. She is the only 15-16 year old girl that has been under 1:00 this season with Bianca Nwaizu ranking second in 1:00.22.

She also earned the #10 spot all-time for 15-16 year olds in the event, surpassing Lydia Jacoby’s 59.46 from February of 2021. Wallace will turn 17 before the end of the season, but if she swims at Winter Juniors next week, she will have one more meet before she ages up to jump up in those rankings.

All-Time Rankings:

Wallace also swam the 50 free, 100 free, 200 breast, and 200 IM. She only swam in the long course prelims of the 200 breast (2:11.04) and 200 IM (2:33.70), scratching the breaststroke final and not qualifying for the 200 IM. She was 4th in the 50 and 100 freestyles, going 23.27 and 51.19 respectively to be just off her best in both.

Rice, also a junior at Mecklenburg and an Auburn commit, went the top time in the 15-16 boys 50 freestyle this season at 19.88. This was just shy of Rice’s best time, which stands at 19.79 from March. He is the only boy in the 15-16 age group who has been under 20 this season with Austin Carpenter ranking 2nd in 20.04. Rice currently ranks 15th in the all-time age group rankings, but he will not age up before the end of the season, giving him a few more months to raise his standing.

Rice also swam the 100 free in 44.72 to earn him the 8th spot in the country for his age group. His other events were the 200 IM (1:51.80), 200 free (1:39.47), and the long course prelims of the 100 fly (59.46) and 400 free (4:22.56).

Wallace and Rice were not the only finishers to earn top 10 spots, 14-year-old Eli Sweet ended up top three in every event he swam. He went all personal bests to earn five top three events. His 200 freestyle was 1:56.99, ranking him 2nd in the nation for 13-14 boys. He also sits in 2nd in the 200 fly, going 1:53.30. His 200 IM (1:52.50), 400 IM (3:57.28), and 500 free (4:35.42) were all good for 3rd.

Two more swimmers earned top-three times. One was Cal commit and SwimMAC senior Elle Scott. Scott set a new best time of 58.94 in the 100 breast to rank her 2nd this season for 17-18 girls. The only swimmer above her is University of Texas breaststroker Piper Enge, who went 58.86 at the Texas Invite.

The second was 14-year-old Isabella Green from Mecklenberg who went a new personal best of 2:15.21 to earn the 3rd spot this season in the 13-14 age group. Her 100 breast was also in the top 10 at 1:03.04, which was good for 8th.

Other Top-10 Swims

• Baylor Stanton a Cal commit and Gwinnett Aquatics senior, jumped to 5th in the 17-18 rankings in the 400 IM at 3:46.92.
• David Sammons from SwimMAC put up 4 top-10 times in the 15-16 age group. His 200 free of 1:38.28 comes in at 10th. His 100 fly time of 48.20 ranks him 6th. His 1:46.64 200 back was good for 5th, but he was the highest ranking 15-year-old, and the 1:46.18 he went in the 200 fly ranks him 4th. All but his 200 backstroke were new personal best times for him.
• Aaron Roy a 14-year-old out of Scarlet Aquatics went a new best of 51.75 in his 100 fly to jump to 8th in the nation for the 13-14 age group.
• Annie Shall a SwimMAC 14-year-old swam 4:17.83 in the 400 IM which was good for 4th in the country for 13-14s and 2:15.86 in the 200 breast which also puts her 4th for the season.
• Santi Alzate a Florida commit and SwimMAC junior, went 9:18.64 in the 1000 free for 8th among 15-16s this season.
• June Delmar from SwimMac set a new personal best by 3 seconds to go 2:00.37 in the 200 IM to jump to 7th in the 15-16 rankings.
• Taylor Klein Mecklenburg junior and Stanford commit went a new best 54.35 in her 100 back which earned her 8th fastest 15-16 year-old this season.
• Bree Smith from SwimMAC went two new personal bests in the 50 (22.73) and 100 freestyles (49.46) to put her 4th in both for the 15-16 age group.