David Marsh is the head coach of one of the country’s great post-graduate professional training groups at SwimMAC Carolina. He is a sprint-man, and a king-maker.
But if he’s the king-maker, then SwimMAC’s Sarah Holman is the princess-maker. This past weekend at the Greensboro Sectional Championships, Marsh’s 14-year old daughter Alyssa Marsh earned her Olympic Trials cut in the 100 fly. She placed 5th in the 100 fly with a time of 1:02.28, and was a touch faster in prelims in 1:02.23. As that left her excrutiatingly close to the Olympic Trials time standard, she went after it one more time in a final-day time trial, and just snuck under with a 1:01.97 (the cut is 1:01.99).
In total, Alyssa dropped well over a second in her three swims. She now ranks in the top 4 of the 13-14 age group nation-wide this season, and is thus far the youngest qualifier for the 100 fly at the Olympic Trials.
Alyssa is following as much in the footsteps of her mother Kristin (formerly Kristin Burke) who is a former swimmer at Cal as her father David (who in the 1980’s was a World-ranked backstroker himself).
Isn’t the cut 1:01.99?
Yes, it says that at the end. She made it by a fiftieth of a second!