Young Swimmers Take the Lead Again at Buffalo Sectionals Day 3

2018 SPEEDO SECTIONALS SPRING LONG COURSE (BUFFALO)

• Thursday-Sunday, March 22-25th
• Erie Community College, Buffalo, NY
• Long Course Meters (LCM)
• Psych Sheet
• Results on MeetMobile, search “2018 Speedo Sectional Championship”

On night 3 of the Buffalo Sectionals meet Richard Mihm got his hands on the wall first in a tight race with Matthew Yish (Auburn recruit) in the men’s 200 fly, posting times of 2:04.02 and 2:04.47 respectively. Mihm came back on Yish in the last 50, posting a 32.13 to Yish’s 33.65. Mihm was also very consistent on his back 3 50s, posting splits of 31.54, 32.24, and 32.13. That type of consistency is relatively rare in the LCM 200 fly. Yish’s time was slightly off his best of 2:04.00, but Mihm’s best before his prelims time of 2:05.37 was 2:07.62, marking a significant drop.

David Abrahams (16) won the men’s 200 breast by over a second, posting a massive best time of 2:22.17. His previous best was 2:33.57, which was from 2016, but still marks a huge time drop. Abrahams’ splits were all over the place, starting at 32.33, followed by 36.26, which is pretty typically split separation for a 200 breast. Then he went up to 38.26 on the 3rd 50, which would usually be a sign that the swimmer’s speed is dying, but then he threw down a 35.32 on the last 50 to catch and pass 2nd and 3rd place finishers Luke Otto and Aaron Zhu.

Kentucky recruit Lauren Poole took the women’s 100 back by 1.51 seconds, posting a lifetime best 1:03.66. Poole had the fastest split in the field on both of her 50s, splitting the race tightly at 31.31/32.35. Madelyn Donohoe, who’s been racing to much success almost every weekend for the 5 weeks or so, won the women’s 400 free with a 4:20.35. That was good enough for her to win by over 5 seconds, but was also 5 seconds off her best time of 4:15.48.

15 year old Oludare Rose won the men’s 400 free with a 3:59.46, winning by a 4 second margin. That time is not a personal best for Rose, who went a 3:59.02 last Summer when he was 14. His best time ranks 3rd all-time for 13-14 boys, only behind Evan Pinion and – wait for it – Michael Phelps.