NOVA Senior Holiday Championships
- November 18-21, 20201
- NOVA Aquatics Center, Richmond, Virginia
- Short Course Yards (25 yard) pool
- Results (PDF)
NOVA of Virginia hosted a meet featuring three of the best teams in the Virginia Swimming LSC last weekend in a prelims/finals meet. Along with the hosts, Quest Swimming and the Tide Swim Team converged upon the NOVA Aquatics Center for 4 days of racing to wrap up the year of competition.
16-year old Tide swimmer Kayla Wilson won the girls’ 200 free running-away in 1:44.90. Not only is that a lifetime best by 1.3 seconds, but it also breaks a 33-year old LSC Record in the event.
The prior record of 1:46.05 was set by Whitney Hedgepeth on March 12, 1987. Hedgepeth went on to win an NCAA title in the 200 free, as well as a trio of Olympic medals at the 1996 Games: gold as part of the American 400 medley relay, and silvers in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes individually.
The time for Wilson jumps her into 15th place all-time in USA Swimming 15-16 history.
Wilson also picked up a win in the 100 free in 49.49, taking the win in a much tighter competition: Nikki Venema, who is on the varsity team at Princeton but is home training with Tide, finished 2nd in 49.44, while another Tide 16-year old Emily Claesson was 3rd in 49.98. Tide took the top 5 finishers in that race.
Wilson, a high school junior, has not yet announced a college commitment yet.
Venema, the defending Ivy League Champion in the 100, 200, and 500 freestyles, won the 100 fly in 52.86. That cut almost a second off her best time of 53.80 done midseason last year for Princeton.
The girls put up most of the highlights swims at the meet. Senior Samantha Tadder, a Stanford commit, swam 3 new lifetime bests among her 7 events at the meet.
In the 200 breast, she swam 2:10.85, which improved her old lifetime best of 2:11.76; In the 200 fly, she swam 1:57.85, which improves her prior best time of 1:58.71; and in the mile, she shaved .02 seconds off her best to go 16:13.03. The 200 breast and 1650 freestyle were both wins; she also topped the field with a win in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.64) and 500 free (4:44.34) as well.
Twins Grace Sheble and Caroline Sheble were the two that finished ahead of her in the 200 fly. Grace Sheble won in 1:56.38, while Caroline placed 2nd in 1:56.52, which is a best time for her. Both Sheble sisters are committed to NC State next fall.
Other Meet Highlights:
- 14-year old NOVA swimmer Eric Lambert placed 4th in the 100 back in 52.04 and 3rd in the 200 back in 1:50.67. His prelims time in the 200 back, which was slightly faster in 1:50.62, was a new best, moved him into the top 100 all-time in 13-14 age group history, and broke the NOVA team record.
- 16-year old NOVA swimmer Claire Dafoe won the 1000 free in 9:45.45, which also breaks a NOVA team record and lands her about 2 seconds short of another Hedgepeth team record.
Congratulations Kayla and to all the athletes getting it done mid COvid19 2020.
Kayla’s mom and Whitney were roommates at Texas.
let’s go kayla!!
As a Tide parent, we are very grateful to the host team Nova for putting on such a well run meet that allowed our athletes to compete with some of the best and nicest swimmers around.
Who downvotes a post like this?
Swimmers who hated the meet lol
I’d go with no best times..