NC State Commit Kylee Alons Drops 5:26 500 Backstroke at HS Meet

While swimming a 500 at a dual meet is a burden for many high school swimmers, NC State commit Kylee Alons embraced the situation and swam it backstroke in late November (the swim was confirmed to SwimSwam by her coach, Carolyn Fries).

She won the event in 5:26.96, touching about 17 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer, teammate Summer Siverts.

“I had entered her in that race because we had a hole there, and she asked if she could swim it backstroke,” Fries told SwimSwam. “She said she wanted to get ready for her 200 this weekend at Juniors.”

Alons is a senior at Fossil Ridge High School, and swims club for the Fort Collins Area Swim Team. She was the Colorado 5A State Champ in the 50 and 100 free last season, and won the 50 and 100 free, as well at the 100 back (53.44) at Speedo Sectioals in March of this year. Her personal bests in the 50 and 100 free are 22.57 and 49.50.

Check out her splits below, and click here to see the full meet results.

Alons’ 5:26.96 500 back splits:

27.94 / 31.65 / 32.28 / 33.64 / 33.74 / 33.37 / 33.55 / 33.83 / 34.09 / 32.8

Alons is currently competing at the West 2017 Speedo Winter Junior Championships, where she anchored her 200 medley relay to a new NAG record in a blazing 21.75, for total time of 1:37.65 (25.26/27.08/23.56/21.75).

Her other best times include:

  • 200 back – 1:55.81
  • 100 fly – 53.18
  • 200 free – 1:48.44
  • 200 IM – 2:02.33

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ACC fan
6 years ago

Here we go, put NC STATE in the title of an article and you can almost guarantee massive reader response! It’s the Wolfpack magic….

Swimmer
6 years ago

Remember when Ryan Lochte swam his 50m free completely underwater?? Lots of mixed reactions after that.

Swim mom
6 years ago

Seems like a showboating move.

Nathan Smith
Reply to  Swim mom
6 years ago

Showboating the 500 is a proud high school swimming tradition!

Swim Mom
Reply to  Nathan Smith
6 years ago

Not in our area. I take back the showboating comment IF this is something that is routinely done in a spirit of fun at this meet. If that is the case, the article should reference that.

Admin
Reply to  Swim Mom
6 years ago

Swim Mom – while I can’t tell you how to interpret this swim, I can tell you that it’s not uncommon for swimmers to swim 500 frees in other strokes as sort of a “fun, let’s see what happens” sort of thing. Keep in mind that “freestyle” is not actually intended to be swum in the front crawl – this is the difference between a “freestyle” event and a “front crawl” event (which do actually exist in some parts of the world). It’s a way for a swimmer to test their endurance if they have primary strokes other than freestyle.

Sometimes, it’s also a ritual. At my high school, every year (not sure if they still do it), it was… Read more »

Swimmom
Reply to  Braden Keith
6 years ago

Thanks for the information !

Dylan
Reply to  Swim mom
6 years ago

Was your swimmer the one in the lane next to her that lost??

Swim Mom
Reply to  Dylan
6 years ago

Nope. Is she your best friend or daughter?
My swimmer would never disrespect her competition this way. I’d rather see a great swimmer like Kylee blow the competition away swimming the 500 freestyle the way it’s intended, rather than showing everyone how great she is by doing a different stroke. What is the intention in this?

SwimPop
Reply to  Swim Mom
6 years ago

Umm, fun? Last season at one of my boy’s HS tri meets the boys did either a 500FL or a 500 IM. Everybody on deck was cracking up the entire event. Dual meets here in CO HS swimming are for the most part pretty casual affairs. The kids are often swimming against their club teammates and until State nobody takes it too seriously.

tea rex
6 years ago

that’s cool. i remember high school. thanks for the video.

Noflykick
Reply to  tea rex
6 years ago

What video?

Bob Sommers
6 years ago

If you swim backstroke it calls for an in water start facing the blocks so I’d think that’s what she did. Her time was in line with an in water start. It’s not your everyday 500 though.

sven
Reply to  Bob Sommers
6 years ago

Freestyle requires a forward start, so if she had done that, she’d have been disqualified. 27.9 on the first 50, 31 on the second. Looks like the time difference you’d see from a dive.

Bob Sommers
Reply to  sven
6 years ago

Sven – You are correct freestyle is a forward start but the rules also state – the swimmer may swim any style – during a freestyle event and the rules for that stroke would apply. 27.94 / 31.65 if not mistaken, these are the splits from above – 27.94 & 59.59 would be the first 100 which she’s easily able to do, based on her 53.44 100 back time. IMHO

Steve Swims
6 years ago

Wow I can’t wait to see how she places in this event at NCAA’s! … … -____-

Noflykick
6 years ago

Love it!
Converts roughly to 4:44 for 400 SCM. That compares favorably with the Australian masters NR in the event, (yes, they actually track the event).
There used to be a domestic US organization that informally recorded distance stroke swims, but now I can’t find it.

ACC fan
6 years ago

That’s legit!

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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