24th Annual American Energy Oklahoma Elite Pro-Am
Night one was light on the number of events, but heavy on the action, as the men’s and women’s 200y medley and 800y freestyle relays were contested, along with the individual 1000y freestyle event.
The Razorback Aquatic Club women scored the meet’s first win, as the combination of Luciana Thomas, Olivia Keith, Caroline Stelte and Martina Thomas touched in a collective time of 1:47.53 to top the podium in the women’s 200 medley relay. They were able to beat the competition by almost 5 full seconds, as American Energy claimed 2nd in 1:52.71 and North Central Arkansas wound up 3rd in 1:54.28. Splits for the winning women were as follows: Thomas 27.11, Keith 36.75, Stelte 20.46, Thomas 23.21.
The Razorback Aquatic Club was back at it in the women’s 800 freestyle relay, taking the win in a monster time of 7:35.76, well ahead of the 2nd place Aquakids who earned silver in 8:19.08. Martina Thomas (1:50.86), Madeline Marks (2:11.71), Luciana Thomas (2:04.99) and Taylor Pike got the job done for the Razorbacks to add more hardware to the team’s collection on just night 1.
Home club, American Energy, surged to the wall first to touch out a very closely contested battle with Northwest Arkansas Aquatics in the men’s 200 medley relay. The foursome of Josh Davis (24.20), Quinn Bunnag (27.21), Joseph Short (22.50) and Luke Davis (22.20) registered a time of 1:36.11 to eke out the win over NWAA, who finished in 1:36.24. Although the specific swimmer names aren’t listed in the results, splits for the 2nd place team were as follows: 23.91, 26.31, 23.97, 22.05, reflecting the back and forth fight, which seemingly could have ended either way. Coming 3rd in the race was Razorback Aquatic Club in 1:38.57.
The men of American Energy also doubled up on their relay wins tonight, taking the 800 freestyle relay in a mark of 7:15.59. 3 of the 4 members of the 200 medley relay remained as Luke Davis (1:51.96), Grant Denison (1:53.49), Joseph Short (1:45:84) and Josh Davis (1:44.30) combined for the win.
In the women’s and men’s 1000 freestyle individual event, it was Badger Swim Club pro Lindsay Vrooman who came out victorious, touching in a time of 9:30.19, a monster swim for the 24-year-old. Coming into the meet, Vrooman’s personal best in this event was the 9:38.83 she earned in 2013, followed by the 9:39.34 she scored at this same meet in 2014. In this 9:30.19 outing, Vrooman crushed a new career-best by over 7 seconds.
On the men’s side, USA National Teamer Zane Grothe muscled his way to the top of the podium with an impressive time of 8:48.01. Grothe’s time marked his fastest since 2013 when he swam a time of 9:12.72 and, as such, Grothe earned his first sub-9:00 time with his outing in Oklahoma.
Luke Davis and Josh Davis … related?
I’m his father.