Summer Smith Swims National Age-Leading Time in 200 Back in Indy

2019 Indianapolis Sectional Championships

• March 28-31, 2019
• Indiana University Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana
• LCM (50m course)
• Live Stream (FREE)
• Results on Meet Mobile “2019 Speedo Sectionals at Indianapolis”
• Live Results

Unlike some sectional meets, which have fallen a bit flat at the top with swimmers focusing on other meets for their spring tapers, day 1 of the 2019 Indianapolis spring sectionals meet (in long course) was fruitful with best times. Every event winner aside from the distance free timed finals swam a lifetime best in their event, and in many cases it was by huge margins: 5+ seconds.

15-year old Summer Smith of the Bluefish Swim Club in New England encapsulated that when she crushed her lifetime best on Thursday in Indianapolis to win the day’s opening event: the 200 back.

In her only individual event of the day, Smith swam a 2:15.25 in prelims, and a 2:12.63 in finals for almost a 2-second margin of victory. In total, that undercut her lifetime best by exactly 5 seconds in the event.

Smith has had a huge breakthrough this season already in long course. In two such meets already in 2019, she’s swum 3 lifetime bests in this 200 back. She’s now the top-ranked 15-year old in the event in 2019 by 2.27 seconds; and she would have been 4th among swimmers of the same age last year (behind only the all-time trio of Isabelle Sstadden, Regan Smith, and Phoebe Bacon).

Later in the session, she split 2:05.80 on Bluefish’s 800 free relay on a leadoff leg.

Other Day 1 Winners:

• In the boy’s 200 back, Wyatt Davis won in 1:59.20, which cut 1.4 seconds off his best. His Carmel Swim Club teammate Jake Mitchell took 2nd in 2:01.43, which undercut his best time by almost 6 seconds. Davis’ swim also broke the Meet Record of 1:59.90 set in 2015 by Michael Reilman of Firestone Akron.
• Ashley Turak from Drop Aquatics near Detroit won the girls’ 50 free in 25.82. Her best time coming into the meet was a 26.50. Turak is a senior, the defending Michigan Division I (big school) champion in the 50 yard and 100 yard freestyles, and an Indiana commit. Indiana’s biggest gap this season was sprint freestylers, especially after the loss of freshman Ileah Doctor, and so Turak’s continued drops is big for their future in the post-Lilly King era.
• Lakeside’s Hunter Tapp defended his title in the boys’ 50 free in 23.03, beating-out Cameron Peel (23.25). US National Teamer Devon Nowicki finished 3rd in the race in 23.60. This is his first long course meet of the season; the biggest focus will be on his 100 breaststroke on Saturday.
• Ohio State commit Janessa Mathews won the girls’ 200 breastsstroke in 2:31.48. She’s been 1:09 in the long course 100, and with this 2 second drop in the 200, she could move into the national conversation if she has a similar improvement in the 100 later in the meet. 16-year old Desirae Mangaoang finished 2nd in 2:323.04.
• Derek Maas of the West Ottawa Swim Club swam a 2:15.38 to win the 200 breaststroke. That’s his best time by over 6-and-a-half seconds. He was out 2 seconds faster on the first 100 than runner-up Kevin Vargas (2:17.97), and that was about their final margin. Vargas was the event champion in this race last season. Maas’ time broke the Meet Record of 2:15.45 set in 2017 by Nils Wich-Glasen, who at the time was an All-American swimmer at South Carolina.
• The Carmel Swim Club out-raced the Northern Kentucky Clippers to win the girls’ 800 free relay in 8:13.19. The winning team was Ashlyn Underhill, Kendra Bowen, Gretchen Lueking, and Kelly Pash. The Clippers took 2nd in 8:17.02.
• The Carmel boys won their day’s relay, the 200 free, with a 1:34.35. That winning group included many of the names mentioned above: Mitchell (23.96), Davis (23.37), Griffin Hadley (23.80), and Alec Dong (23.22).
• One exception to the ‘big drop winners’ was Mariah Denigan of the Northern Kentucky Clippers. She swam 8:44.08 to top the girls’ 800 free, but has been 8:28. She’s a member of the USA Swimming National Team inn this event. Her teammate Allison Piccirillo made up for it though: Piccirillo was 5th in 8:59.05, which was a drop of over 9 seconds. 14-year old Morgan Razewski from SwimMAC was 2nd in 8:52.79.
• Mitchell won his first event of the meet in the boys’ 1500 free timed final, touching in 15:37.94. That was 2 seconds from his lifetime best, but he won the race by 12 seconds.