On July 25th, the Scottsdale Aquatic Club hosted a last chance qualifier meet for teams in the state of Arizona looking to earn spots at Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals. With only about a 5 hour drive between Phoenix and Los Angeles, last-minute qualifiers still had a feasible chance of making the trip and swimming at the meet.
Swimmers primarily came from three clubs: Tucson Ford, the Phoenix Swim Club, and the hosts from the Scottsdale Aquatic Club (SAC), and included among the results was a 1:23.20 from SAC’s top 200 yard free relay.
With all four members of that relay being either 15 or 16, that was officially recognized earlier this week as a USA Swimming National Age Group Record.
The team included Ryan Hoffer, Jack Blake, Aaron Apel, and Kaleb Gould, which is almost the same group that set the 13-14 record in March of 2013 at 1:25.63. The only difference was Gould jumping in where David Goll held a spot for the 13-14 team.
The comparative splits (13-14/15-16)
- Hoffer 20.33/Hoffer 20.31
- Blake 20.32/Blake 19.81
- Goll 21.60/Apel 22.02
- Apel 23.38/Gould 21.06
As the splits above show the really big difference came from Apel’s improvement of over a second, though every leg of this relay improved at least a little.
I also want to refer to PDVH’s comment above.
TOTALLY AGREE! The only thing I would add is that Caeleb is in a class by himself at his age, not only in the states but in the world!!!
I seriously believe he can make the Rio team in 2016. It won’t be easy, but I think he can make top 4 in the 100 free and who knows, we might get a positive surprise in the 50.
With the above being said, his breakthrough as an Olympic swimmer though will be in 2020 and 2024 where he will dominate both 50 and 100 free.
I agree on the phenomenal talent of Dressel and I think he will be US no. 1 sprinter post Rio, but to predict that he will dominate 2020 and 2024 olympics? That’s bold.
Remember that there is a 17 yo swimmer who a second faster than Dressel in the 100 free, and a 15 yo who is as fast as Dressel in the 100 free. 🙂
Was about to say the same thing as aswimfan. Dressel is in a class of his own in the U.S…but in the world he’s in a class of about 4-5.
Great points ASWIMFAN and Braden Keith. Would love to see a head to head between Dressel and the future star of Brazil, Matheus Santana.
Spot on Bobo GIGI. Great insightful analysis as always.
I had high expectation for Ryan Hoffer, considering his SCY results which were spectacular at his age. Shows again that not all SCY greats make the effective transition to meters. With that being said, he is very young and has all the talent and work ethic to make it big. The big story for me in Junior nationals were the following: Michael Andrew, Reece Whitley and Maxine Rooney. Reece will be a matter of time for him to give Kevin Cordes a run for his money, and as for Michael, his strength in every stroke is amazing and posted some good results in 100 back, 100 fly and 200 im.… Read more »
Bobo, I’m not sure anyone in american freestyle history can compare to Caeleb dressel. He broke Phelps’s 17-18 nag in the 100 free a month after he turned 17. Phelps set it just before he turned 19. Dressel also has a very good chance to become the fastest 17 year old in history if he can break 22, which in all likelihood, he will. Ryan is great, but dressel is in a class by himself in the states.
The record the Scottsdale boys broke belonged to another team of 15-16 boys. The SAC boys still have the record they set in 2013 which was for 13-14 boys 200 yd. free relay at 1:25.63. There is a good group of kids at the Scottsdale team, and those 4 boys still have the whole short course season to improve on the new record time before anyone ages up.
Ryan Hoffer was great in the last SCY season. 19.54 and 43.13. At 15 it was impressive.
Unfortunately he has not the same results in long course so far. He still has everything to prove in the big pool. His best times are “only” 23.54 in the 50 free and 51.98 in the 100 free. And he was only in 23.75 last week at junior nationals.
It will be very interesting to see his performances this week in Irvine.
Based on his short course accomplishments and if we compare with Caeleb Dressel, he should be able to swim around 22.75 and 49.50 this summer.