Presenting our Weekly Wonders from the weekend of October 26-28, 2018:
Marc Macomson, 13, Poseidon Swimming (PSDN-VA): 100y back (52.72) – Swimming at 757swim’s Fall Fiesta, Macomson went his second-best 100 back, falling short of a PB by a mere .06. Still, he was 1.9 seconds faster than he’d been at the end of October last year (54.66). He did drop 1.8 seconds in the 200 back, and he won the boys’ 13-14 50 free, 100/200 back, 100 breast, and 100 fly and was runner-up in the 400 IM.
Andy Gelston, 13, Tri-city Channel Cats (TCCC-IE): 100y back (57.12) – Gelston erased 2.6 seconds from his previous PB and was 5.5 seconds faster than he’d been at the same meet last year when he won the boys’ 13-14 100 back at the La Grande Spooktacular hosted by La Grande Swim Club. He also won the 100/200 free, 200 back, and 100/200 fly and was runner-up in the 1000 free and 400 IM. He finished the meet with new PBs in all 8 events.
Lex Hernandez-Nietling, 17, Kansas City Swim Academy (KCSA-MV): 100y breast (55.56) – After his recent verbal commitment to swim at the University of Utah next year, Hernandez-Nietling scored his first Summer Juniors cut winning the 100 breast with a best-by-1.2-seconds 55.56 at the IFLY Speedo Midwest Challenge. He won the 100 free, was runner-up in the 200 IM, took 3rd in the 50 free and placed 4th in the 200 breast. He registered PBs in the 50/100 free, 100/200 breast and 200 IM.
Hayley Kimmel, 14, Linn-Mar Swim Team (LMST-IA): 200y breast (2:16.74) – Also competing at the IFLY Speedo Midwest Challenge, Kimmel earned her first Winter Juniors cut in both the 100 breast and 200 breast. In the 200, she dropped 6.7 seconds and was 17.4 seconds faster than she’d been in December 2017 (2:34.13). She was runner-up in the 100 breast and 200 IM, 3rd in the 200 breast, and 4th in the 100 fly and 400 IM, and she picked up new times in the 500 free, 100/200 breast, and 200/400 IM.
Simone Kabbara, 12, Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club (CFSC-GU): 200y breast (2:29.65) – Kabbara won the girls’ 11-12 200 breast by 17 seconds at the October Open Meet hosted by Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club and Fleet Swimming. It was a best time by 2.4 seconds and 5.9 seconds faster than where she was at the beginning of November 2017. Kabbara also won the 100 free, 100/200 back, 100/200 breast, and 200 IM and was runner-up in the 200 free and 100 fly and 3rd in the 200 fly. She finished the weekend with new PBs in the 100/200 free, 100 back, 200 breast, 100/200 fly, and 200 IM.
Grace Davis, 13, Sioux Falls Swim Team (SFST-SD): 200y breast (2:27.92) – Davis knocked 4.1 seconds off her 200 breast time and finished 12th in the women’s open event at the IFLY Speedo Midwest Challenge. Last November she went 2:42.27 in the distance. She also finished 18th in the 100 breast with a new PB of 1:09.52.
Will Hayon, 14, Mid Wisconsin Wave Makers (MWWM-WI): 100y fly (50.75) – Another swimmer who shone at IFLY Speedo Midwest Challenge was Hayon, who scored his 1st Futures cut in the 100 fly when he dropped 4/10 and finished 6th in the men’s open event, the only 14-year-old to final. Hayon has now dropped 2 seconds in the last 12 months. Hayon finished 14th in the 50 free, 14th in the 100 free, 15th in the 100 back, and 23rd in the 200 IM. He PBd in the IM as well as the fly.
Bella Gary, 15, Weston Swimming (WEST-CT): 200y IM (2:07.18) – Gary went her 2nd-best time in the 200 IM, only .22 off her PB (from Time Trials at 2017 Winter Juniors), representing Weston High School at the Girls SWC C-Finals. That’s a 7.4-second improvement over the 2:14.60 she swam in mid-October 2017. Gary broke the meet record in winning the 200 IM. She also won the 500 free with a PB of 5:14.25.
Reminder: The Weekly Wonders column is a celebration of age-group swimming, where new champions are made every day. Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds. By association, it also celebrates their coaches and their teams. The Weekly Wonders column, therefore, amounts to a pat on the back for a job well done, and hopefully encourages swimmers of all levels to continue to reach from within to get to that next level.
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ABOUT MP
Launched in the spring of 2015, MP designed by Aqua Sphere is a shared vision to develop innovative products that are inclusive and accessible to a broader range of swimmers across the full swimming lifecycle. Combining Aqua Sphere’s global product design expertise and distribution with Michael Phelps’ and Bob Bowman’s experiences at the highest levels of swim performance, the MP brand features technical swim products leveraging proprietary technologies and performance enhancing designs.
ABOUT AQUA SPHERE
Established in Genoa, Italy, in 1998, Aqua Sphere is the premier swimming equipment manufacturer for fitness and recreational swimming, aquatic exercise and triathlons. With the launch of its cutting-edge Seal Mask—the world’s first swim mask, the company set the industry standard and today continues to innovate with a complete range of premium products, including eye protection, swimwear, triathlon wetsuits, footwear, and swim fitness and training accessories. The designs have gained the respect and loyal following of many celebrities and notable athletes, including the world’s most decorated Olympian Michael Phelps, with whom Aqua Sphere is partnering to develop a global brand partnership. Alongside its parent company Aqua Lung and supported by an international distribution network, Aqua Sphere has grown into a worldwide enterprise representing unparalleled design, development and manufacturing expertise, with a global footprint in more than 90 countries. For more information, visit www.AquaSphereSwim.com orhttp://www.Facebook.com/AquaSphereSwim.
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Aqua Lung pioneered the creation of modern diving equipment in 1943 when Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau teamed with Emile Gagnan to develop the first “aqua-lung” that made underwater exploration possible. Today, the brand continues to be the leading global designer and manufacturer of dive and water sports gear. With a deep commitment to quality, research and testing, Aqua Lung has revolutionized the scuba diving experience by setting industry standards for scuba equipment in technology, comfort, safety and design. The company’s rich history as an expert in the dive and water sports industry has led to the demand of Aqua Lung equipment for recreational, technical and military applications in more than 90 countries around the world, under the brand names of Aqua Lung, Aqua Sphere, Apeks, U.S. Divers, and Stohlquist. For more information, visit www.AquaLung.com or http://www.Facebook.com/AquaLungDivers.
How do you submit something to Weekly Wonders?
Hi SwimCoachSean, we have a system for WWAGS, and don’t generally take submissions. As you can imagine, if we did, we would spend all day just wading through emails, because there are lots of swimmers in the country doing lots of great things. Anne focuses on trying to recognize swimmers from different LSCs and teams around the country, and uses the SWIMS database to do so. If you have a swimmer with an EXTRA special swim (maybe who breaks a really old meet or team record, or breaks a record of a well-known swimmer like Phelps or Coughlin or Franklin or Ledecky, or something along those lines), you can use share – [at] – swimswam.com to submit it, but no… Read more »
Completely understand, makes perfect sense, I don’t want to make this an even more difficult task. You guys do an amazing job highlighting swimmers that wouldn’t normally and I love what you do, keep up the great work!
The comments of these articles are also a great place to recognize other great performances, so feel free to do that!
Dang 2:16 in breast from 2:34 WOW!!