NCAP Invitational
- College Park, MD
- December 11-15, 2024
- SCY (25 yards)
- Full Meet Results
Nation’s Capital Swim Club hosted their annual Invitational meet a few weeks ago, and the girl’s top-10 times saw loads of new-10 times across the board.
14-year-old Jane Chevalier set a nation-leading time in the 1000 freestyle, and 13-year old Julia Bak and Leah Oconnell saw significant drops on their way to multiple top-10 times.
Chevalier, from Badger Swim Club, won the girl’s 13-14 1000 freestyle in 9:51.97, which was a new top time this season for her age group. Her time is almost five seconds ahead of Zayda Miehl’s 9:56.67 in 2nd. This time also ranks her 60th all-time in the event.
She also picked up top-10 times in the 500 free and 1650 free. Her 500 came in at 4:51.19 for 4th this season, just behind fellow 14-year-old Alex Siegel from Long Island Aquatic Club who went one one-hundredth faster at the NCAP Invite with her 4:51.18 for 3rd this season.
Chevalier’s 1650 was also a top-10 time coming in at 16:42.52 for 5th this year. Again, she was short of Siegel who went 16:33.20 for 2nd this year, and 98th all time in the event.
Julia Bak of QNS Aquatic Club also picked up a few 13-14 top-10 times this season with her new best times in every event she swam. Her first top time came in the 100 backstroke where she went 55.12 to win the event and drop two tenths from the 55.22 she set at her Sectionals meet in March. This time was good for 10th in the event this season.
She picked up a #6 time in the 50 free with her 23.04, which was another event win for her. This was three tenths faster than her previous best of 23.35 from March.
Her final top-time came in with another event win and best time in the girl’s 100 freestyle. Bak went 50.64 to pick up 6th in the country, and went a new best time by half a second, dropping from her 51.29 from this meet last year.
Leah Oconnell from Long Island Swim Club earned four top-10 times in the 11-12 events. On the first night, she went 5:11.48 in the 500 free which ranks her 7th in the country this season. This was a six second drop from her previous best of 5:17.79 that she went in November. She came into the season at 5:19.85.
Her 200 IM was also a best time by a little over three seconds from the 2:14.17 she went in March, coming in at 2:10.89. This was good for 5th this season in her age-group.
Oconnell also had significant drops in her 100 IM and 200 free to pick up 7th and 8th respectively in the country this season. She went 1:57.18 in her 200 free to drop nearly three seconds from the 1:59.85 she went in October. Before this season, she had never been under two minutes. Her 100 IM was 1:01.59, a second-and-a-half faster than the 1:03.12 she went in March.
The other significant story out of the meet was Long Island Aquatic Club and their continued reign in the 500 freestyle. Over the 11-12, 13-14, 15 & Over 500 freestyle events, LIAC put 16 swimmers in the top 8. For our non-math folks, that is ⅓ of the top-eight swimmers all coming from the same club. This isn’t a new story for LIAC, one of the best 500 freestylers in the NCAA, Cavan Gormsen from Virginia, came out of the club just a few years ago.
Other Notable Swims:
- Nola Waldbuesser, another 13-14 girl, from PDR swimming, also picked up three top times in the mid-distance free events. Her 1:49.62 in the 200 free ranks her 3rd this year, and marked her first time under 1:50 in the event. She went 4:52.63 in the 500 free for 5th this season, and her 1000 free was 10:12.51 to rank 8th.
- Sean Green, from Long Island, won the boy’s 500 freestyle coming in at 4:16.78 which is good for 7th this season in the boy’s 17-18 rankings.
- Leo Delev, a 12-year-old from Badger Swim Club, won every event he swam with all new best-times, picking up three top-10 times. He won the 200 back in 2:01.84 for 3rd in the 11-12 boys rankings, the 100 back in 57.31 for 6th this season, and the 200 IM in 2:05.70 for 8th. His largest drop came in the 200 back where his 2:01.84 was three seconds faster than the 2:04.97 he went in November. It was almost five seconds faster than his best time coming into the season of 2:06.74 from March. Delev has already turned 13.
Way to go, Leo!