The King Marlin Pro-Am Classic is underway at a new location in Lewisville, Texas and already results make it seem that the move was a good choice. This unique meet offers prize money to draw world class athletes to compete with club swimmers, attracting teams from all over the country.
In addition to details that make the meet unique, like the tournament bracket style shoot-out in the 50 freestyle, KMSC is still making changes to improve upon the meet format. This weekend they are running prelims in two pools, as well as adding a D-Final. Also for the first time, they will be running a long course time trial session on Saturday, making this meet an even better opportunity for top performers and amateurs to get the most out of racing in a fast pool.
The Thursday timed finals session featured two relays, the 200 medley and 800 freestyle, along with one individual event, the 1000 freestyle, which proved to be the highlight of the night for both the men’s and women’s sessions.
Stephanie Peacock held back Ashley Twichell to take the women’s 1000 in 9:23.50, which is a personal best by just over four seconds and moves her up to fourth on the all-time Top Performers and Top U.S. Performers lists. That time is also the tenth fastest performance all-time by an American. Twichell’s 9:25.80 would also rank her among the top ten on both top performers lists if she were not already on them with her previous best 9:24.44. Third place finisher, Houston Swim Club’s Logan Schiller (9:57.53,) was the top amateur in the event.
Mission Viejo took six of the top seven places in the men’s 1000 freestyle, led by eighteen year old Grant Shoults won the event with 8:48.50. That time ranks him as the thirteenth fastest U.S. Performer all-time and was just over ten seconds faster than his previous best. He has also moved ahead of Jeff Kostoff’s 8:48.57 from 1983 to become the second ranked swim all-time for the 17-18 age group, less than two seconds behind the NAG record 8:46.40 set by PJ Ransford this year. Shoults was followed by fellow Nadadores Dan O’Conner at 8:59.20 and Logan Redondo at 9:01.48.
Mission Viejo was able to claim wins in both of the women’s relays. The team of Andrea Felix, Siqi Qin, Jessica Epps and Samantha Shelton turned in 1:44.50 to hold back Schroeder YMCA by .05 for the win in the 200 medley relay. Shelton, Felix, Epps and Stephanie Peacock won the 800 free relay, finishing just over six seconds ahead of Lakeside Aquatic Club who touched at 7:22.69.
In the men’s 200 medley relay the Lakeside team of Ethan Kramer, Brendan Feehery, Alvin Jiang and Alexander Zettle took the win at 1:32.64, leaving the Nadadores almost two seconds back at 1:34.52. The Mission Viejo squad of Marc Morizono, Shane Forker, Logan Redondo and Grant Shoults took the 800 relay, distancing themselves from Lakeside on a blazing 1:36.89 anchor from Shoults. Mission’s final time was 6:38.99 against Lakeside’s 6:47.86.
Meet results were delayed Thursday evening but are now available on Meet Mobile. Stay tuned to SwimSwam all weekend for more updates.
Meet mobile still not working, and only updates well after sessions have ended. There is a twitter account but no activity. Can someone actually at meet look into this? Much appreciated.
Well done Grant!