Opening night of the 2015 Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions (SMOC) saw a pair of Sandpipers of Nevada teammates sweep the wins in lifetime-best efforts.
The first day of the long-running California meet featured the girls 800 free and the boys 1500.
17-year-old Erin Emery kicked things off by taking the girls event in 8:42.96. That’s just about a second and a half away from a lifetime-best for the graduated high school senior, who will swim for the Minnesota Gophers next fall.
Her Sandpipers of Nevada teammate Erica Sullivan was second in 8:44.63. At just 14 years old, Sullivan had a monster drop in that race to earn second from outside of the fastest-seeded heat.
In fact, Sullivan had yet to break 9 minutes in her career prior to tonight. Her previous best was a 9:00.37 from last summer’s Junior Nationals. But on Thursday night of SMOC, she crushed that time by over 15 seconds.
Sullivan should be set up to have a whale of a meet the rest of the weekend, too. She was 4:20.24 to her feet at the 400, which would have smashed five seconds off her best swim in that individual event.
Third place went to Allie Davis, swimming unattached, in 8:46.11.
It was another Nevada Sandpiper who won the boys race, with 18-year-old Logan Houck picking up the win. His 15:21.42 was a lifetime-best for him by five seconds as well.
It was an incredibly tight race, with Nitro’s Sean Grieshop actually leading early by a sizable margin. But Houck started to charge after about the 1000-mark, running down Grieshop to take the narrow win by about half a second. The 16-year-old Grieshop was 15:22.03 for second.
Mission Viejo 18-year-old Nick Norman took third in 15:32.70.
The Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions is named in honor of former Mission Viejo open water star Fran Crippen, who passed away during a competition in 2010. The meet continues through Sunday.
Full results are available on Meet Mobile.
