Rising Canadian star Taylor Ruck, who trains with the Scottsdale Aquatic Club in Arizona, swam to a huge new personal best of 2:17.77, toppling her old best of 2:21.02 for a personal best and a Trials cut. She represents her home country of Canada, so that Trials cut might not mean too much to her, but a personal best by over three seconds should. Ruck is a ridiculously fast freestyler and backstroker for her age (15), and that shone through as she had the fastest back and free splits in the field.
Daniel Carr of Cheyenne Mountain Aquatics won a hotly-contested race in the men’s 200 IM. The 16-year-old touched out Mount Hood Aquatics Nicholas Thorne by just over two tenths. Thorne came back hard in a 28.95 to Carr’s 29.27, but Carr had enough cushion to make it to the wall ahead in 2:05.72 to Thorne’s 2:05.94.
Kyle Robrock of the Denver Hilltoppers has been on a roll, with a win in the 100 free already and a new Olympic Trials cut in the 100 backstroke earlier in the meet. In the men’s 50 free final, he found the wall well before anyone else, going 23.08 to clip the Trials cut by just over a tenth. He’s earned two new Trials cuts at this meet. For the women, Gillian St. John blasted a new best time of 26.19, which punches her tickets to Trials. She was dead-on the cut, and had a drop of over four tenths from her lifetime best. That’s the 17-year-old’s first-ever Trials cut.
Amanda Richey beat out Kira Webster to the wall in the 800 free earlier in the meet, and Webster was back for revenge in the 1500. The unattached swimmers finished 1st and 2nd, with Webster redeeming herself for a win in 17:09.72, well ahead of Richey (17:14.48). Jacob Ores (Loveland Swim Club) won the men’s race by a landslide, touching in 15:34.67, almost 20 seconds off of his lifetime best. This meet is likely just a tune up for Nationals. The Virginia Tech post-grad finished well ahead of Dylan Bunch of the Denver Hilltoppers, who touched 2nd in 15:55.22.
Great races to watch and especially fun to call!
I believe Taylor is 15 now as of May, but amazing nonetheless.
Bobo,
Swimming for Canada is not a choice for Ms. Ruck as she does not have US citizenship. Her challenge, of course, for Rio is that, aside from fly, Canadian women are strongest and deepest in the backstroke. I do think she makes their 4 x 200 relay, though, and give her a good shot at the individual 200 back and free.
I think she will be in 54 and 1.58 on free and in 1.00 and 2.09 on back by the end of the summer.
A little Missy in the making.
But unlike Missy, she prefers to swim for Canada. We’ll see in the future if it was an error or not.