Who Broke it First? CATS Aquatics Boys Also Break 15-18 200 Medley National Age Group Record

Shortly after posting about the success of the Somerset Valley YMCA boys at the YMCA Long Course National Championships, we learned that they may not have broken the National Age Group Record, after all.

Alex Snarski, Kyle Aerne, Connor Black, and Bogdan Balteanu of the CATS Aquatics team in suburban Chicago swam a 1:43.24 in the men’s 200 long course meter medley relay at the NCSA Junior National Championships.

That event is time-stamped at 6:17 PM Eastern time, which almost surely makes it before the Somerset YMCA did their swim. We don’t know for sure if USA Swimming time-stamps records, but either way, the boys from the CATS will end the day as the National Age Group Record holders.

They broke the 1:45.08 done by TIDE Aquatics a few weeks ago, better than the 1:44.60 that was done by KING as 15-16’s last weekend, and were also better than the Somerset YMCA’s 1:44.00 from YMCA Long Course Nationals.

With all four swimmers being either 17 or 18, it also breaks the 17-18 record of 1:44.93 held by Doug Kling, Tyler Mayfield, Keith Dennison, and Alex Federov in 1989 while at Las Vegas Gold. Those names might not jump off the page to the modern generation, but their coaches will: David Marsh and Bob Bowman.

The splits:
Snarski (17) – 27.06
Aerne (18) – 29.04
Black (18) – 23.61
Balteanu (18) – 23.53

Black, who is a Stanford commit and the National Public High School Record holder in the 100 yard fly, was the really incredible split on that relay. Though it was on a rolling start, that’s already a time capable of competing with the best in the country in this race.