National Jr. Team Member Summer Smith Throws Down 4 PBs at 18&Under champs

2020 USA New England 18& Under Winter Championships

• December 4-6, 2020
• Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley, MA 
• Course: Short Course Yards
• Results on Meet Mobile: 2020 USA NE 18& Under Winter Champs WELL

New England Swimming hosted its edition of USA Swimming’s 18 & Under Championships at the Boston Sports Institute, home of the relocated 2012 Olympic Trials pool. 

Headlining the competition was USA National Junior Team member and Tennessee commit Summer Smith of Bluefish Swim Club, who posted best times in 4 events. 

Smith kicked off the weekend swimming her signature event, the 400 IM. Crushing the field by 10 seconds, Smith put up a time of 4:12.50 to come within .3 seconds of her best time. Notably, Smith managed to negative split both her backstroke leg (30.60/30.12) and freestyle leg (30.43/29.20) during the race. In addition, Smith’s time now stands as the 2nd fastest time in the country during these championships, falling just behind Kate McCarville’s 4:12.22. 

Later, Smith swam the 100 backstroke, finishing first in a time of 54.41. For Smith, this marked over a two second drop off of her best time, which stood at a 56.63. Her time currently ranks 7th across all of the championship sites. 

On Sunday, Smith swam a loaded event schedule of the 200 IM, 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly, and 500 freestyle, claiming victories in every event. Smith’s first event, the 200 IM saw her put up a time of 2:00.42 to shave .07 off of her best time. Like the 100 back, Smith currently ranks 7th across all of the championship sites in this event as well. 

After, Smith threw down an effort of 1:55.07 in the 200 backstroke to cut over 2 seconds off of her best time. Currently, her time is the second fastest in the country among all swimmers competing in the championships. 

Smith wrapped up her weekend with best times in both the 200 butterfly and 500 freestyle. In the 200 butterfly, she cut about a half second off of her personal best to finish in 1:57.81, while in the 500 freestyle Smith threw down a 4:47.90 to cut over 3 seconds off of her best time. In both events, she ranks 3rd amongst all Winter Championships participants across the country. 

In the 500 freestyle, Gator Swim Club’s Dana Li finished 2nd to Smith in a best time of 4:55.08 to drop over 5 seconds off of her best time. At 15, Li ranks as the 6th fastest swimmer in the event across the country at the championships, and she is the only person younger than 17 in the top 10 ranked swimmers. Li also posted a best time of 1:50.38 to drop over a second in the 200 freestyle, once again posting one of the top ranked swims of the championship. 

Other Highlights:

• Harvard commit Molly Hamlin finished 2nd to Li in the 200 freestyle, posting a best time of 1:50.49 in the process. She also put up a best time in the 200 backstroke, finishing in 1:58.57. 
• US Open Champion Josh Parent won the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:39.51, chopping over 2 seconds off of his best time.
• Princeton commit Emily Appleton dropped over 2 seconds in the 200 butterfly to claim 3rd in a time of 2:05.13. Appleton was originally committed to attend Dartmouth College this past fall, but had to recommit once the program was cut. 
• 17-year-old Kyle Won won the 100 backstroke in a time of 48.59, dropping almost 2 seconds to break the :50-barrier for the first time. Won also claimed victory in the 200 backstroke, swimming a time of 1:46.08 to best the field by over 2 seconds.