MP Weekly Wonders of Age Group Swimming – 7/11/2018

Presenting the Weekly Wonders for the weekend of July 6-8, 2018:

Cam Peel, 17, Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics (MLA-MI): 50m free (23.52) – Peel dropped nearly 1 second in his 50 free at the 2018 TYR Pro Swim Series Columbus. First, he took .35 off his seed time in prelims, clocking a 24.00 to renew the Winter Juniors cut he’d earned at the end of last summer. Then, in a swim-off for 36th place, he lowered his new PB by half a second to finish with 23.52, which, had he swum that in prelims, would have put him in the C final. He also earned his first Winter Juniors cut in the 100 free (52.13) and snagged a PB in the 200 free.

Sarah Mundy, 17, South Carolina Swim Club (SCSC-SC): 50m free (26.95) – While it wasn’t a lifetime best, Mundy swam her fifth sub-27 since June while competing at the 2018 Bulldog Grand Slam. She has now been under the Winter Juniors standard six times since she first broke the barrier at last year’s season-closer. Mundy did notch a new PB in the 100 free, finishing 11th with 58.47.

Ryan Husband, 17, Northwest Arkansas Aquatics (NWAA-AR): 100m free (52.77) – Swimming at TYR PSS Columbus, Husband picked up his first four LCM Winter Juniors cuts in the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, and 100 fly. He dropped 3/10, 7/10, 1.2 seconds, and 1.4 seconds in the respective events. He also improved his 200 IM time by 2.2 seconds to leave Columbus with 5 new lifetime bests.

Andy Gelston, 13, Tri-City Channel Cats (TCCC-IE): 1500m free (17:44.36) – Gelston dropped 1 minute and 17 seconds from the same meet last year when he swam the 1500 free at the 52nd Annual Pendleton Open hosted by Pendleton Swim Association in Pendleton, Oregon. It was quite a weekend for Gelston; he went best times in the 100 free, 200 free, 400 free, 1500 free, 200 back, 100 breast, 200 breast, and 200 IM.

Halina Panczyszyn, 13, Lakeside Aquatic Club (LAC-NT): 100m back (1:07.13) – Panczyszyn took 1.5 seconds off a month-old PB when she won the girls’ 13-14 100 back at the 2018 North Texas Long Course Age Group Championships. Panczyszyn is now 4.2 seconds faster than she was a year ago in the 100 back. She also improved her lifetime bests in the 100 free, 200 free, 400 free, 200 back, 200 IM, and 400 IM.

Malia Francis, 14, Woodson Y Northern Swimmers (WYNS-WI): 200m back (2:23.31) – Swimming at the 20th Annual Bird Bath Invitational hosted by Fox Cities YMCA Swim Team in Appleton, Wisconsin, Francis won the girls’ 13-14 100 back and 200 back. While Francis didn’t earn PBs in those events, she did finish the meet with new times in the 50 free and 100 free. Francis kicked off the 2018 LCM season this past March with her first Winter Juniors cut in the 100 back (1:05.25) and her first U.S. Open cut in the 200 back (2:17.50). She has improved her 200 back by 8.2 seconds since the beginning of last summer.

Gilbert Benton, 16, Vipers of Albuquerque Swim Team (VAST-NM): 100m breast (1:09.23) – Benton scored a PB by 1.7 seconds and was 3.9 seconds faster than he’d been last year at this time when he swam the 100 breast at the 2018 CC Arena Grand Challenge hosted by Clovis Swim Club. Benton left the meet with new times in the 100 free, 400 free, 1500 free, 100 breast, 200 breast, 100 fly, and 400 IM.

Shelby Stanley, 17, Virginia Gators (GATR-VA): 100m fly (1:02.31) – With her second-place finish in the women’s open 100 fly at the 2018 NBAC Mid-Summer Classic, Stanley went a lifetime-best by 2/10. She also achieved a PB in the 200 breast (2:42.17) and was an A-final qualifier all her events: 100 free, 400 free, 100 breast, 200 breast, 100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM.

Reminder: The Weekly Wonders column is a celebration of age-group swimming, where new champions are made every day. Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds. By association, it also celebrates their coaches and their teams. The Weekly Wonders column, therefore, amounts to a pat on the back for a job well done, and hopefully encourages swimmers of all levels to continue to reach from within to get to that next level.

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