Gentry, Grimm, and Huske All Hit Lifetime Bests at PV Winter Champs Day 4

2020 Potomac Valley 18&U Winter Championships

• December 3-December 6, 2020
• Claude Moore Recreation Center, Sterling, VA
• SCY
• Results on Meet Mobile as “2020 PV 18&U Winter Championships”
• Meet Central
• Sunday Finals Results

The 2020 Potomac Valley 18&U Winter Championships wrapped up today with action in the 1000 free, 200 back, 100 free, and 200 IM. The stars we’ve seen all week were out in force tonight, and we should see a few of them toward the top of this year’s USA Swimming 18&U Winter Championship rankings, which considers all meets done between December 1st and 13th, when those result are compiled.

Arlington Aquatic Club’s Torri Huske put the finishing touches on a torrid few days of racing with wins in the 100 free and the 200 IM tonight. In the 100 free, Huske won by nearly two seconds with a time of 47.60. That’s a 0.59s improvement from her previous best of 48.19 from December 2019, and moves the 17 year-old up to #7 all-time in the 17-18 age group, with at least another year left to move up those rankings.

Huske closed out the meet by hitting a two-second personal best in the 200 IM, lowering her best mark to 1:54.50 as she won by over five seconds. That time moves Huske to #15 all-time in the age group. All told, Huske won six events this week, hitting lifetime bests in all six.

Here’s a quick summary of her improvements this week:

• 50 free: 21.95 ➡ 21.43
• 100 free: 48.19 ➡ 47.60
• 200 free: 1:46.07 ➡ 1:43.23
• 100 fly: 50.49 ➡ 50.29
• 200 fly: 1:55.17 ➡ 1:54.04
• 200 IM: 1:56.65 ➡ 1:54.50

In other action, Machine’s Paige Hall hit a big lifetime best this evening in the 200 back. Coming in to the meet with a best of 1:57.39, she had a huge swim in prelims to go 1:55.12. She didn’t quite match that tonight, but her time of 1:55.99 was still enough to win by the better part of three seconds and Hall’s first win of the week.

NCAP’s Paige McKenna completed a sweep of the longest three free events, winning the 1000 free in 9:41.30. McKenna, who’s committed to Wisconsin, won the 500 free and the 1650 free earlier this week.

On the boy’s side, 16 year-old Landon Gentry capped off a week that’s seen him demolish personal bests, as he closed things out with an almost-three second best time in the 200 IM, winning in 1:46.73. Gentry ended the week with two top ten rankings in the 15-16 age group; he’s now #6 in the 100 fly and #5 in the 200 fly, pending other results from the last few days. The Virginia Tech commit has also probably propelled himself up significantly in the rankings for the high school boys class of 2022, where we had him listed as a “one to watch” in our first round of rankings a few months ago.

Here’s Gentry’s best times when we ranked this class a few months ago compared to where they are now:

• 50 free – 21.25 (did not swim)
• 100 free – 46.26 ➡ 45.19
• 200 free – 1:41.24 ➡ 1:37.87
• 100 fly – 48.44 ➡ 46.41
• 200 fly – 1:46.06 ➡ 1:43.03
• 200 IM – 1:49.45 ➡ 1:46.73
• 400 IM – 3:58.00 (did not swim)

Gentry also hit a best time in the 100 back, going 48.66 in a prelims swim.

Mako’s Anthony Grimm, the #2 recruit in the class of 2021,  hit a new personal best in the 100 free, improving from 46.59 to 44.17.  Grimm has been 19.6 in the 50 free and 45.6 in the 100 back, suggesting that Grimm has been capable of a 100 free far better than that 46-mid. In fact, Grimm’s times in his other events this week indicate that he may not be fully tapered here, and if that’s the case, he should be closer to 43-mid in the 100 free when he is.

NCAP’s Matt Van Deusen made a big jump forward in the 200 back. He came in today with a best time of 1:52.34, and he blasted a 1:44.44 in prelims before going 1:45.80 in finals, still enough to win by well over a second. Sean Santos of Rockville Montgomery won the the 1650 by over 10 seconds. His time of 15:38.16 was about five seconds away from his lifetime best, but still plenty enough to get another win to pair with his win the 1000 free on the first day.