It’s been a whale of a weekend for the SwimMAC Carolina high school age group. They’ve taken down their third National Age Group Record of the weekend in time trials at their home pool during the Tar Heel State meet. The latest went to the 15-16 girls in the 200 yard medley relay.
There, the team of Kathleen Baker, Caitlin Casazza, Alyssa Marsh, and Nora McCullagh combined for a 1:39.61. That shaved .02 seconds off of the old mark of 1:39.63, set by the Aquajets in 2009. That Aquajets relay has a few familiar names on it: Rachel Bootsma (Cal), Abby Duncan (Auburn), Meghan Cummings (Loyola-Marymount), and Tess Behrens (Minnesota).
Here’s the comparative splits between SwimMAC’s relay and the old record that was done at the 2013 NCSA Junior Nationals meet:
| Aquajets ’09 | Bootsma 24.41 | Duncan 27.82 | Cummings 24.37 | Behrens 23.03 | 1:39.63 |
| SwimMAC ’13 | Baker 24.74 | Casazza 28.94 | Marsh 23.76 | McCullagh 22.17 | 1:39.61 |
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Nobody was going to touch Bootsma’s 50 backstroke split (she’s probably the best 50 backstroker we’ve ever seen in yards), but Marsh, daughter of the program’s director and Olympic coach David Marsh, and McCullagh’s clutch anchor split just clipped the record.
The girls had actually tried for the mark earlier in the day, but missed by just a tenth. Determined not to let such a small margin keep them out of the record books, they went after it again, and on the second attempt succeeded.
Baker, Casazza, and McCullagh combined last year with Lauren Rhodes to take down the age group record in the 200 yard free relay.
(Aside: looking at old swim meet results can be fun sometimes, when we know what these young stars develop into. Take the 2009 NCSA Junior National meet. The relay that was second to the Aquajets record-breakers included a 13-year old Janet Hu, Gabrielle Mizerak, Ellyn Baumgardner, and Meredith Cavalier.
Not recognized as a record, but at the 2010 Winter Nationals the PASA 200 Free Relay team (Schaefer, Howe, Liang, Tosky) went 1:30.15 which was faster than any other 18-under club time in history. The reason for not being recognized was Ally Howe was only 14 at the time (a few days shy of 15). Pretty good quartet of girls.