Joanna Evans Breaks Bahamian Record on Day 2 of Austin Sectionals

2017 SOUTHERN ZONE SECTIONALS – AUSTIN

Friday’s finals session at the Austin Sectionals lacked the cachet of an appearance by Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling, who won the 100 free on Thursday and is scheduled to swim the 100 fly on Saturday, but still had excitement for Longhorn fans. One Texas undergrad, Joanna Evans, swam a lifetime best in the 200 free, while another Jeff Newkirk, got very close to a best time of his own.

Evans, a Bahamian national, won the 200 free in 1:59.91. That counts as her first time ever under two minutes and improves upon her own previous best of 2:00.37 done at the Arena Pro Swim Series stop in Atlanta. It also makes her the first Bahamian woman under 2 minutes in the race, and breaks her own National Record.

In the very next race, the men’s 200 free, her male colleague Jeff Newkirk swam a 1:49.92, which is his second-best time ever in the event. He was only faster at last year’s Olympic Trials where he swam 1:49.33. He didn’t race at last week’s World Championship Trials.

The state’s two best college programs, Texas and Texas A&M, split the wins on Friday. The one exception was the women’s 200 meter medley relay, which was won by the Lakeside Aquatic Club in 1:58.49.

Other Day 2 Winners:

  • Mexican National/Texas A&M Aggie Esther Medina Gonzalez, who’s not racing at Mexico’s Long Course National Championships this week, won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:32.91.
  • The men’s 200 breaststroke went to another Aggie, Ben Walker, in 2:16.65. That’s his lifetime best in the event by nearly 2 seconds.
  • Texas A&M’s Monika Gonzalez-Hermosillo won the women’s 400 IM in 4:49.25. That leaves her just 2 seconds short of Susana Escobar’s Mexican National Record in the event.
  • Longhorn Aquatics’ Sam Stewart won the men’s 400 IM in 4:25.11 – finishing almost 6 seconds ahead of University of Utah commit Grant Thompson (4:30.91).
  • An Aggie Swim Club relay, made up of 4 Texas A&M college swimmers, won the men’s 200 medley relay in 1:41.32. Adam Koster anchored that relay in 22.29. Matthew Willengbring of the Austin Swim Club split 24.76 on the fly leg of Austin Swim Club’s second-place relay. The high school senior-to-be is verbally committed to Texas.
  • Making his annual sectionals appearance, 56-year old Masters’ World Record holder David Guthrie qualified for the D final of the men’s 200 breaststroke, swimming a 2:33.53 in the morning.

Team Scores

Top 5 Women’s Teams:

  1. Lakeside Aquatic Club  – 300
  2. Austin Swim Club – 288
  3. Aggie Swim Club – 197
  4. Texas Ford Aquatics – 159
  5. Rice Aquatics – 136

Top 5 Men’s Teams:

  1. Longhorn Aquatics – 252
  2. Nitro Swimming – 214
  3. Austin Swim Club – 206
  4. Lakeside Aquatic Club – 172
  5. Alamo Area Aquatics Association – 152

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Nah
6 years ago

1:59.9 is the record? Is she the only swimmer in the country?

Nah
Reply to  Braden Keith
6 years ago

I forgot about her, she was great, I bet she would have had no problem breaking 2 minutes no doubt. But… she never swam the event, so that record is very… ummm how do I say this without being mean… slow. Atleast for a national record

Hswimmer
Reply to  Nah
6 years ago

Rude. Have you broken 2:00 as a girl?

Dee
Reply to  Nah
6 years ago

Bahamas has 400,000 people. Less than any US state. I think having NRs under 25.00, 54.00, 2.00, & 4.10 for women’s freestyle is pretty awesome. I think their textile 50fly NR is actually faster than the USA’s, too 😉 You need Torres’ supersuit 25.50 to nip them by 0.03

Chop, chop…

Nah
Reply to  Dee
6 years ago

*facepalms

All I’m saying is being +7 seconds off the world record is not an elite time anymore. I guess people have different definitions of what is fast though. The US has so much depth it’s hard to imagine a national record that would not even final at a meet like the Olympics of world championships

Dee
Reply to  Nah
6 years ago

Who has said it’s “fast”? It’s 2 seconds off what it typically takes to get out of heats at Worlds/Olympics, and a 1.57low usually sneaks into the final. So it’s a tad disingenuous to use the WR as a gauge. You were disrespecting the national record, you weren’t making a general comment about 200 freestyle times. To quote you, “slow, atleast for a national record”. It’s relative, how fast do you want a nation with a population 1/4 of the size of Manhattan’s NRs to be?

Typical
Reply to  Nah
6 years ago

I’m sorry that not every country in the world is a powerhouse in every sport like the US. Kindly step off your sporting high horse.

swm4me
6 years ago

Woo hoo! The Flamingos will be celebrating!!!!!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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