There wasn’t a lot going on over Thanksgiving weekend so this report covers the last TWO weekends. A lot of age-groupers swam fast at Nationals in Knoxville. The biggest names have already been mentioned in all the coverage of the event so we are looking at other performances here. Without further ado, behold this week’s Daring Dozen:
Isaac Davis, 13, Chicago Wolfpack Aquatic Club: 50 free (22.12) – Davis placed second in the men’s 50 free at Westmont Swim Club’s Mid-Season Challenge. His time was a full two seconds faster than his 24.20 last fall.
Colin Riley, 15, Marietta Marlins: 50 free (20.87)/ 100 free (45.97) – Riley competed at the Georgia Senior Short Course State Championships hosted by SwimAtlanta last weekend. Beyond the fact that he took down some big Georgia names in finishing second in the 50 and 100 frees, more remarkable was that his times were 2.3 seconds and 5 seconds faster, respectively, than they were in November 2012.
Abbey Erwin, 14, Boise YMCA Swim Team: 200 free (1:50.30)/ 500 free (4:48.52) – Erwin finished second among 231 entrants in the 200 free and first among 155 in the 500 at the 65th Annual Husky SCY Invitational in Federal Way, Washington. She also won the mile in 16:34.73. Last November her times in those events were 1:59.2/ 5:10.5/ 18:01.8.
Maxime Rooney, 15, Pleasanton Seahawks: 200 free (1:37.38)/ 500 free (4:24.03) – With the exception of Liam Egan of Crimson Aquatics, Rooney was the only finalist under 18 years old at Winter Nationals in the 200 and the 500, where he finished 20th in both events. Last year at this time he went 1:38.3/ 4:29.9.
Destiny Kling, 12, YMCA Westside Silver Fins: 500 free (5:08.39)/ 1000 free (10:28.73) – Kling broke four 11-12 Girls’ meet records at the Holiday Swim Festival hosted by Swim Neptune and Desert Thunder in Tempe, Arizona. Her 500 and 1000 swims from the weekend now lead the nation for 12-year-old girls. She also holds the top mile time (17:27.92, from a meet in November).
Austin Katz, 14, Sarasota YMCA Sharks: 100 back (50.62)/ 200 back (1:48.76) – Katz achieved his first national-level swims in a short-course race, getting two Winter Juniors cuts in the 100 back and 500 free, and a Winter Nationals in the 200 back, at the Gator Swim Club Holiday Classic in Gainesville, Florida. Last November his 100 back was a 56.12 and his 200 was 1:59.9.
Ingrid Wall, 14, New Trier Swim Club: 100 breast (1:02.58) – Wall was the youngest finalist in the 100 breast at Winter Nationals in Knoxville. She placed 22nd and went 2.2 seconds faster than she did last December.
Grace Zhao, 14, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics: 200 breast (2:15.35) – Zhao won the 50 free as well as the 100 and 200 breast at the 65th Annual Husky Invitational in Federal Way. She has dropped ten seconds in her 200 breast in the last two months.
Zach Harting, 16, Unattached, and Andrey Tretyakov, 15, Unattached: 100 fly – The top four finalists in the boys’ 100 fly at the Alabama High School State Championship all touched within 0.30 of each other. In the end it was Bob Jones High School junior Harting to the wall first in 49.57. His teammate, freshman Tretyakov placed third with 49.82. Harting, who also swims for Huntsville Swim Association, finished eighth at last year’s state meet. His best time a year ago was 51.8. Tretyakov took 2.5 off his time from last fall of 53.29; his club team is Madison Swimming Association.
Zach Fong, 16, Jersey Wahoos: 200 fly (1:47.27) – Fong was the youngest finalist in the 200 fly at Winter Nationals in Knoxville, where he wound up eighteenth. Last December his best time was 1:53.40.
Tommy Brewer, 17, Current Swimming: 200 IM (1:46.82) – Brewer set the 200 IM meet record at the 65th Annual Husky Invitational in Federal Way. His 1:46.82 was the fastest time in the country not achieved at Winter Nationals. A year ago Brewer went 1:47.
Benjamin Walker, 16, Premier Aquatics Club of Klein: 500 IM (3:52.42) – At the Gulf Swimming Senior Championships hosted by the Aggie Swim Club, Walker earned Men’s High Score honors and broke two meet records winning the 400 IM and 200 breast (2:03.16). He also won the 500 free and 100 breast. Walker’s 3:52.42 IM was 12 seconds faster than he went a year ago, and was 6 seconds under the previous meet record set by Gray Umbach in 2008.
Little late, but MOR’s Ashley McCauley went 1:05.05 in 100 breast, at age 12, to break Olympian Jilen Siroky’s state record.
14-year-old Courtney Harnish had very good results last week.
1.47 in the 200 free
4.45 in the 500 free
16.08 in the 1650 free
You will have much work next week after the US junior nationals, the Tom Dolan Invitational and plenty of other fast meets.
NAG records and big swims to come! 😎
Watch out for NAG records coming from Vinny Marciano this weekend. we’re over at Felix Festa middle school the same pool he broke the 10&U LC 50 back record in.
Will Davis (Isaac’s twin) went 22.6 at the same meet. Both of them had several swims that put them in the top 10 in the country for 13 year olds.
Ashley McCauley, Marlins Of Raleigh, 12, 1:05.0 100 Breast last weekend
Lauren Case from Chattahochee Gold in Geogia need not be overlooked. At 15, went a (1:47.69) 200fr, (54.41) 100fly, (1:58.02) 200fly, (4:50.70) 500free, (2:00.76) 200bk, (50.67) 100fr, and (2:05) 200im and won Georgia Senior state championship meet this past weekend.
Michael Draves, who just turned 14 and swam in a practice suit, went 9:40.92 1000 and broke the WI record by nearly 5 seconds. Danny Krueger, also 13, went 1:44.60 200 free in an Aquablade. Both swims were at the relatively slow UW-Madison Natatorium.