Young breaststroke star Ruta Meilutyte was absent from the 2016 Lithuanian Championships, but there were still two new national records set during the meet.
Ieva Jacevičiūtė swam a 5:03.52 in the 400 IM to not only win the event but set a Lithuanian record. Jacevičiūtė is very young, as the results page lists her as having a 2001 birth year. She also took 3rd in the 200 IM (2:25.49), an event won by Ukrainian veteran Ganna Dzerkal in a new championship record of 2:16.05.
The other record was set by Ugnė Mažutaitytė in the 200 back. She won the event with a strong 2:12.68, winning by over six seconds. Mažutaitytė was quite a force at this meet, winning three other events and going four-for-four individually. She took victories in the 50 back (29.67), 100 back (1:02.76), and 200 free (2:08.73), breaking the meet record in the 100 back.
Latvia’s Gabriela Nikitina and Belarus’s Nastassia Karakouskaya clashed in the sprint free events. The Latvian won the 100 free (57.14), while the Belarusian took the 50 free (25.73). Karakouskaya took down championship records in the 50 free and in the 100 free with her 56.42 from prelims. Nikitina also won the 50 fly in 27.32.
Mindaugus Sadauskas took the men’s 50 and 100 free in meet record fashion. He touched at 22.50 in semis to break the 50 record and then went 22.62 to win in the final, following that up with a 49.67 to win the 100 free and break that record. He just edged out Danas Rapsys in the 100, who touched at 49.73. Rapsys and Sadauskas are teammates on the club Panevezio Zemyna, and Rapsys went on to win the 200 free (1:48.83) in a new meet record.
All of the men’s breaststroke meet records were downed as well. Giedrius Titenis clocked a 27.87 in the 50 breast semis to break that record and went on to win the event. Andrius Sidlauskas broke the 100 breast meet record in prelims (1:01.32) and then again in finals (1:00.96). Finally, Estonian Martin Allikvee swam a 2:12.80 to win the 200 breast and break that meet record.
The 100 fly came down to the wire, but ultimately it was Deividas Margevicius to the wall first in 53.53 over Tadas Duskinas (53.66).
