Gillian Ryan kicked off the final night of the NBAC Chirstmas Meet with a sparkling 15:53.55 in the 1650 free. That means that in her 3 or so months of training at NBAC, she’s managed to cut 28-seconds off of her lifetime best in this race. This swim was impressively paced – her opening 500 yards were a 4:47, and her closing 500 yards were done in 4:49. She’s now got fantastic endurance, and a little more speed work will bring her 500 (she was 4:42 on Saturday) to a comparable level. Speaking of speed, she split a 50.98 anchor at the end of NBAC’s winning 400 free relay.
Germantown’s Rachel Zilinskas has been having a strong all-around meet, but her best swim came in this mile where she broke the 16-minute barrier for the first time as well in 15:59.16. She’s already a top-20 recruit in next year’s senior class, but this time should bump her up a few more spots. She would later tack on a win in the 200 back in 1:56.43.
Germantown swimmers took the top 2 spots in the men’s mile, with Florida commit Arthur Frayler marking a fast 14:47.02 for the victory, which . In his first year in NCAA swimming, he rightly should be at least a top-5 finisher in the men’s mile, if all goes well and he continues to improve. His teammate Bryan Draganosky took 2nd in 15:18.68. He will be headed to a rising Louisville program in 2012.
Michael Phelps finished off his meet with back-to-back victories in the 200 back (1:39.72) and 100 free (43.43). That 100 free title, though he was probably a bit fatigued by that point, was the worst swim of his for the entire weekend. In the process of winning that 200 back, he sat out the 200 fly that was instead won by training partner Chris Brady in 1:45.71.
Allison Schmitt wrapped up her weekend with a 49.25 in the 100 free and a B-Final victory in 1:59.69. Like Phelps, after a strong weekend of performances Schmitt’s 100 free was not as good as her other races. That’s a sign that the NBAC elite post-grad group is still into some heavy training.
Schmitt’s 15-year old teammate Cierra Runge swam a 49.64 for 2nd, which is a fantastic time for her age. Rachel Zilinskas was 3rd in 50.65.
The winner of the A-Final in the 200 fly, with the 2nd-best time overall, in 2:00.17. She paced the 200’s very well (both this fly and the backstroke), but that was sort of “forced” as her strengths seem to clearly lie in the 100 yard races.
Among other notable swims were victories from both of the younger Peltons. William Pelton, only 11, won the 11-12 age group in the 50 free in 25.97. Mary Pelton won the 13-14 age group in 51.09, which is a lifetime best by well-over a second. As we pointed out yesterday, she’s making the same big time drops at 14 as her sister Elizabeth did, and has a very bright future.
Allison has bronchitis. Ok if I understand english she’s ill. And she swam 1.41.90 in the 200 free! In the future she will swim under 1.30 healthy! It’s impressive.
Michael Phelps has swum very good times for this period of heavy training. You forgot to mention it was perhaps his last meet in yards. Tough for me to think that his retirement is coming. I’m a swimming fan since 2000 and swimming for me equals to Michael Phelps. We must enjoy his last races. Great time for Gillian Ryan, she continues to improve. She has a big finish in her races.But if she wants to qualify for the next olympic games in the 400 and in the 800 free she must continue to take speed. She’s lucky, her rivals for the spots Kate Ziegler and Chloe Sutton also have a lack of speed. But be careful to Katie Ledecky.… Read more »
Allison has bronchitis
i don’t think it was the move to NBAC that she dropped 28 secs…but this summer she made huge gains and that was probably more the reason!