Natalie Mannion Breaks Beisel Record to Close 2018 NE Senior Champs

2018 NEW ENGLAND SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 12-16, 2018
• Providence, RI (Brown University)
• Live Results

14-year old Natalie Mannion from the Commonwealth Current made history on Sunday: the final day of the 2018 New England Swimming Senior Championships. She swam a 2:14.65 to win the 200 meter backstroke, which was her first Summer Nationals cut, and won by 3 seconds over Bluefish 15-year old Summer Smith (2:17.73) – a swimmer who had a huge meet of her own.

In the process, Mannion broke the 13-14 New England Swimming Open Record of 2:15.69 that was set by Elizabeth Beisel in 2007. Beisel, a New England Swimming legend, would go on to qualify for the Olympic Games a year after setting that record, where she was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic swim team in Beijing. The “Open” record for Mannion, meaning the fastest time ever done at a New England Swimming LSC-hosted meet, is still short of Beisel’s “resident” record of 2:11.68 (actually set in 2006), but is the fastest swim ever done by a 13-14 girl on New England soil.

She had previously set an age group record in the 200 free earlier in the meet when  she swam 2:05.12. That record belonged to Kaia Simmons from 2006.

The aforementioned Smith, meanwhile, won the girls’ 200 IM on Sunday in 2:20.85. Her 13-year old teammate Aislin Farris finished 2nd in 2:23.09, and as a team, Bluefish had 6 of the top 7 swimmers in the race (Emma Whall was the only interloper in 2:23.76). That caps off a 126-point meet for Smith, which is 41 points better than any other swimmer scored across the weekend.

7 more wins in 10 finals on Sunday brought Bluefish up to an even 20 wins on the week, meaning that they won almost 59% of the events on offer.

Other Day 4 Winners:

• Notre Dame commit Sydney Winters of the Mei’s Typhoons Swimming Club swam another lifetime best on Sunday, her 5th (across 3 events) of the meet. She swam 58.14 to win the 100 free, which took exactly half-a-second from her previous long course best done at this meet in 2017. She previously won the 50 free in a best time of 26.69, and finished 3rd in the 100 breast with a 1:13.39.
• Another Bluefish 15-year old Erin Jachym won the girls’ 800 free in 9:01.05. That shaved .14 seconds off the old 15-16 New England Open record of 9:01.19 done by Hannah Cox in 2014.
• 17-year old Bluefish swimmer William Barao won the boys’ 800 free in 8:18.62, which was just half-a-second from Alex Kostich’s all-ages, New England Open record of 8:18.05 that was swum in 1988. Barao is a rising high school senior, so he will have a shot at that record next summer.
• Harry Homan, also of Bluefish, won the boys’ 200 back by more than a second in 2:04.86. He’s a rising high school seniorand a UNC verbal commit.
• 15-year old Andrew Benson of Solo Aquatics broke his own New England Open Record of 50.94 (from prelims) as well as the 15-16 overall record, in the boys’ 100 free final with a 50.47. That’s the fastest time ever done by a junior-aged swimmer in New England, and the fastest ever done on New England Swimming soil by a swimmer of any age, besides Harvard undergrad Dean Farris, who swam a 49.44 in prelims and scratched the final.
• River Wright won the boys’ 200 IM in 2:05.68, which breaks the New England Open record for 17-18s in that event.

Individual Awards

Male High Point Top 5

1. Harry Homans, Bluefish – 108.5
2. Will Barao, Bluefish – 104
3. River Wright, Bluefish – 103
4. Andrew Matejka, Gator Swim Club – 87.50
5. Jack Januario, Executive Swim Club – 81

Female High Point Top 5

1. Summer Smith, Bluefish – 126
2. Sydney Winters, Mei’s Typhoons Swimming Club – 85
3. Megan Kramer, Bluefish – 79.50
4. Natalie Mannion, Commonwealth Swimming – 78
5. Emily Ecker, Portland Porpoise Swim Club – 69

Final Team Scores

Combined Top 5

1. Bluefish – 1622.50
2. Gator Swim Club – 675.50
3. Solo Aquatics – 437
4. Seacoast Swimming Association – 436
5. Executive Swim Club – 419