SwimSwam’s The Weekly Wonders of Age Group Swimming – 1/22/2014

This past weekend saw several National Age Group records go down and SwimSwam was on hand to cover them in these articles: Alex Valente’s 100 fly, Destin Lasco’s 100 back, and Michael Andrew’s 100 breast, 50 free, and 100 back.

Early spring is an interesting time for swimming. Some states are right in the middle of high school swimming as a winter sport; others haven’t yet begun since it’s a spring sport. LSCs are wrapping up age group swimming with short course Junior Olympics. The Grand Prix series has begun to produce some fast early-season long course times. Some teams are tapered; others are working through the meets. Against this backdrop we’ve chosen the week’s Daring Dozen:

Daniel Krueger, 14, McFarland Spartan Sharks: 50m free (24.44) – Krueger swam his second-best time ever to land a spot in the “C” Final at the Austin Grand Prix. He held his own in a heat that featured 17- to 29-year-olds and ended up tied for 22nd.

Abbey Weitzeil, 17, Canyons Aquatic Club: 200y free (1:45.65) – Weitzeil went more than two full seconds faster winning the 200 free at the 2014 California/Nevada Winter Sectionals than she had a month earlier at Winter Juniors. She just missed the meet record of 1:44.98 set by Chelsea Chenault in 2010.

Moriah Simonds, 16, Pleasanton Seahawks: 500y free (4:44.62) – Simonds won the 500 free at California/Nevada Winter Sectionals with a personal best, just a tick faster than she had been at Winter Juniors in December. That’s a nine-second drop from last February.

Libby Gilbert, 11, Star Aquatics and Makena Ditsworth, 11, FAST Swim Team: 1650 free – Swimming at different Southern California Junior Olympics meets on the same day, both Gilbert (18:13.32) and Ditsworth (18:13.88) won their respective miles with nearly identical times. Both dropped around 30 seconds from when they each first swam the event in November.

Noah Henry, 13, North Texas Nadadores: 100y back (52.76) – Henry won the boys’ 13-14 100 back with a 2.5-second drop from prelims to finals at the COPS 32nd Annual Speedo Greater Southwest Invitational Meet. Last January his best time was 1:00-mid.

Nick Alexander, 15, Flyers Aquatic Swim Team: 200m back (2:06.28) – While off his best time, Alexander still had a nice final swim at the Austin Grand Prix. He was the highest-placing swimmer under 16-years-old in the B final of an event that was stacked with backstroke legends.

Lance Rainer, 12, Jersey Wahoos: 100y breast (1:03.91) – Rainer set two meet records in winning both the 100 and 200 yard breast at the 2014 Middle Atlantic Elite Meet at Gloucester County Institute of Technology.

Vanessa Pearl, 14, Metroplex Aquatics: 200m breast (2:35.19) – Pearl scored a personal best en route to finishing second in the “B” Final at the Austin Grand Prix, picking up her first WCT cut in the process.

Julia Roy, 13, Lakeside Swim Team: 100y fly (55.66) –Roy achieved her very first national time standard, winning the 100 fly with a huge swim at the 2014 MAC Clifton Larson Allen Invite. At the same meet last year she went a 1:00.09.

Justin Wright, 17, Fresno Dolphins Swim Team: 200y fly (1:45.88) – Wright went a best time while finishing third in a hard-fought battle with Corey Okubo at the California/Nevada Winter Sectionals in Los Angeles.

Emma Schanz, 16, Spokane Waves Aquatic Team: 200y IM (1:59.23) – Only a tick off her best of 1:59.10, Schanz won the 200 IM at the 2014 Washington Open at Federal Way. She also won the 100 back, 100 breast, and 200 breast.

Special thanks to Lyle Campbell for his assistance in putting this list together.