Jillian Crooks Posts Lifetime Bests At TAC Titans Big Southern Classic

2022 TAC Titans Big Southern Classic

•  November 11-13, 2022
• Triangle Aquatic Center, Cary, North Carolina
• Short Course Yards (SCY)
• Results on MeetMobile: “2022 TAC TITANS Big Southern Classic Meet”

One of the top clubs in the country, the TAC Titans hosted eleven teams at the Big Southern Classic last weekend. While the meet was primarily attended by North Carolina teams, Aces Swim Club of Colorado, Arlington Aquatic Club of the Washington D.C. area, and Georgia Coastal Aquatic Team of Georgia were also in attendance.

One of the top performances of the meet came from the Arlington Aquatic Club, with 14-year old Erkhes Enkhtur claiming a pair of event wins and five total top-5 finishes in his first USA Swimming meet. In the 100 back, Enkhtur won in dominant fashion, taking first by over a second and a half to stop the clock at 52.39. He had more competition in the 100 fly, where he narrowly edged TAC’s Tommy Tuescher to take first in 51.53. While this meet was Enkhtur’s first time competing in yards, he has a wealth of racing experience in the long course pool while representing his home country of Mongolia. Despite his age, he already holds the senior national records in the 50 and 100 backstroke (LCM), as well as the 50, 100, and 200 backstrokes and 200 IM (SCM).

On the girl’s side of the 15 and up age group, Olympian Jillian Crooks, who represented the Cayman Islands in Tokyo, posted four lifetime bests. A sprint specialist, Crooks notably swam to new lifetime bests in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. In the 50, she dipped under 23.0 for the first time in her career, stopping the clock at 22.83 in finals. She made an even larger drop in the 100, dropping over a second to finish at 48.86. Crooks, who set high school state records in Alaska last year, now swims with the TAC Titans. She’s committed to join the University of Tennessee in the fall of 2024, where she will follow in the footsteps of her brother, NCAA medalist Jordan Crooks.

In the boy’s 15 and up age group it was TAC’s Jerry Fox and Andrew Li who each claimed a pair of event wins. Fox, who is set to join NC State next fall, picked up wins in the 50 and 100 freestyles. Finishing just off his lifetime bests, Fox topped the field in the 50 and 100 freestyles, touching in 20.48 and 44.27, respectively. Li continued TAC’s strong showing in the freestyle events, grabbing first in the 200 free with a new lifetime best of 1:39.22. He also grabbed first in the 500 free in 4:35.18.

Picking up multiple first place finishes and best times in the 11-12 age group was Kaylee Dietrich of the TAC Titans. Dietrich claimed the top spot in the 100 IM (1:03.81), 200 IM (2:15.14), 100 fly (1:02.50), and 100 breast (1:09.03). She also added a second place finish in the 200 free (2:01.15) and third place finish in the 100 free (57.72). In total, she swam four lifetime bests across the weekend. Her teammate, Alistair Peng, also posted numerous lifetime bests as he won five events in the 11-12 boys age group. Peng notably dipped below 2:00 in the 200 free for the first time, dropping over three seconds to touch in 1:58.41.