Liam Custer Swims 2 More Lifetime Bests in Long Course Finals in Sarasota

SYS SUMMER SOCIAL DISTANCE

• July 24-26, 2020
• Selby Aquatic Center, Sarasota, Florida
• SCY (25y) pool, Prelims/LCM (50m pool) Finals
• Results on Meet Mobile: “SYS Summer Social Distance”
• Live Video

After crushing a pair of best times in prelims on Friday morning, 16-year old Sarasota Sharks swimmer Liam Custer swam 2 more best times on Friday evening in Sarasota.

This week’s time trial is one of the first prelims/finals meets since July 1, when USA Swimming began sanctioning meets again. For the evening finals session, the Sharks flipped the pool to long course meters.

Custer started the session with a 1:55.68 in the 200 free, which improved upon the 1:57.93 best time that he swam in mid-February. At the end of the session, he added a 4:32.01 in the 400 IM, which shaved .16 seconds from his previous best time.

In prelims, he cut over 5 seconds off each of his best times in yards (read more here). While he now leads the nation among 15-16s in the 400 yard IM this season thanks to his prelims swim, his evening long course time clocks him in 7th nationally in the age group so far.

US National Teamer Emma Weyant, who is scheduled to begin her freshman season at Virginia this fall, swam, and won, the same two events on Friday evening. She started her day with a 2:00.88 in the 200 free. That’s the 3rd-fastest swim of her career, behind only her time from Summer Nationals in 2019 (1:58.3) and a swim half-a-second better in mid-February of this year.

Later in the session, she swam 4:42.32 in the 400 IM – which is her best shot at qualifying for the US Olympic Team next summer. She won the US National Championship in the 400 IM at last summer’s Nationals with a 4:35.47 – a time that ranked her as the fastest American in long course among the entire season (including the World Championships, where the top US finisher Ally McHugh placed 6th in a 4:38).

Other Day 1 Event Winners

• 14-year old Gracie Weyant, Emma’s younger sister, won the 100 breast by more than 9 seconds in 1:13.22. That’s within a second of her best time of 1:12.61 that she swam in mid-February.
• Jackson Harlan won the boys’ 100 breaststroke in a 1:07.59, which cuts more than a second off his previous long course best time of 1:08.93. Harlan is a rising senior at Riverview High school who has not yet announced a commitment to swim in college.
• Miami commit Savannah Barr had the top yards time in prelims (55.12) and matched that with the top long course time in finals (1:02.07). While her yards swim was not a best time, her long course evening swim was a new personal best by over a second. It also pulls her within a second-and-a-half of the Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 1:00.69.
• Felipe Baffico swam a 57.08 to top the boys’ 100 fly final. For the 15-year old, this is his first swim under 1 minute in the event. His previous best time of 1:00.12 was done in mid-February.