There were not a lot of meets scheduled during Easter weekend, but we noticed a few great swims from the ones that did take place. SwimSwam covered the National Age-Group Swimming Association’s Showcase Classic; there were also a few long-course meets as well. For the most part, it was the younger end of the spectrum that made the most spectacular time leaps this weekend. Take a look at our picks for the weekend of April 18-20, 2014.
Jacey Hinton, 11, First Colony Swim Team: 50y free (24.79) – Hinton won the 11-year-old girls’ 50 free at the Showcase Classic with a new best time. She shaved 1.24 seconds off her personal best, achieved just a month ago, and catapulted from the mid-60s to number four in the 2013-14 season rankings for 11-year-old girls in the 50y free.
Christina Cianciolo, 12, Clearwater Aquatic Team: 100y free (51.66) – Cianciolo dropped more than two seconds to win the 12-year-old single age group category at Showcase. She finishes the season with the top 100y free time for 12-year-old girls in the nation.
Michael Treglia, 11, Jersey Wahoos: 200y free (1:57.72) – Treglia went home from the Showcase Classic 3.3 seconds faster than when he’d arrived. Coming in with a 2:01, which placed him somewhere around 35th in the country for 11-year-old boys, Treglia dropped a half-second in prelims. He then went crashing through the 2:00 barrier in finals and finished the year the 9th fastest 11-year-old in the country.
Adam Kerr, 12, Poseidon Swimming: 500y free (4:55.41) – Kerr was 33 seconds faster at this year’s Showcase than he was in 2013. This was his sixth 500 since September 2013; each time he got progressively faster until he finally broke through the 5:00 barrier with a vengeance.
Shane Blinkman, 13, Unattached: 100m breast (1:09.94) – Swimming unattached at the Australian Age Group National Championships, Blinkman took another few hundredths off his personal best from January. Both swims were his first sub-1:10s, about 1.5 seconds faster than his personal best last August when he swam with Hudson Area Swimming Association at Central Zones.
Keith Myburgh,14 , Virginia Gators: 200y breast (2:06.15) – Myburgh nabbed the last spot on the national Top Ten list for 14-year-old boys with his 1.24-second drop at the Showcase Classic. Last year at this time he was a 2:16 200-breaststroker.
Kasja Dymek, 13, Greenwood Swimming: 100y fly (55.54) – Swimming at Showcase, Dymek picked up her first-ever national time standard with a 2.6-second improvement from her seed time. Dymek dropped 1.3 seconds in prelims, and another 1.3 in finals where she broke the meet record in the event by .6.
Anthony Mowles, 12, Lakeside Aquatic Club: 200m fly (2:27.92) – Mowles went a personal best by 4.5 seconds winning the boys’ 11-12 200 fly at the TXLA Long Course Kick Off meet. He was 21 seconds faster than at his kick-off meet a year ago.
Kristen Romano, 14, Town Wrecker Swim Team: 200 IM (2:03.63) – About a second off her personal best, Romano nonetheless swam a solid 200 IM, winning the girls’ 14-year-old event at Showcase Classic. She also won the 100 free, 100/200 back, 100 fly, and 400 IM, was second in the 200 free and 50 back, third in the 50 free, and fourth in the 500 free.
Special thanks to Lyle Campbell for his assistance in putting this list together.
Thank you for mentioning my son Shane! I only just now saw this! Our family is living in Sinagapore, and Shane is not only unattached, but he is coach-less as well. He gets workouts emailed to him daily by our HASA coach, and with his twin brother Cale, they dig deep to find the discipline & motivation to push themselves and each other. Seven more months in Asia and we’ll be repatriating to the states and back to Hudson Wisconsin!
http://www.BlinkmanBuzz.com
As a parent of one of these kids mentioned, I would like to first thank you for your mention, but I would also like to make a couple shout outs. First to Katie Mack, an extremely well rounded versatile swimmer that is highly proficient in every stroke. Without Katie, Christina does not go that fast. Then their is Madelyn Donohoe, this young phenomenal swimmer just about broke Brooke Bennett’s decades old 1000FR Florida Swimming record of 10:06.84, these two are simply amazing, and they bring out the very best in their competition. Both of these girls represent the very best in this sport, sportsmanship, character and dedication. I nominate these two also for the weekly wonders.
Geez, I forgot that little 11 year old that gave the big scare to the 12 year olds……Chase Travis, This ones going to be breaking some meet records at NASA next year!
You have probably already watched the video interview but I still post it
Congrats to your daughter for the great meet she had last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxDrmbubr18
Bobo Gigi,
Swimmer Joe’s pretty cool, We are very lucky down here in Florida to have him. His forward thinking about the promotion and marketing of our sport is first class, thanks for the video…….Long Course training us in full effect at Clearwater now, so we are moving on to next season. Thank you for the awesome coverage of the NASA Showcase classic, I was there timing lane 5, I had a front row seat for the swims you were talking about, and you were spot on in your assessments every time.
Just to add- I’m very close friends with Michael Treglia. He is a great sprinter, and freestyler in general. He needs to work on other strokes as well though. If you look at his lineup all you see is… Free. There is literately a ton more strokes that he’s good at. Let’s take fly for example. He has a shot at that but, he can’t sprint fly. I have better times than him but that’s beside the point. I’m happy that he is talking some spots in the top 10, but he needs to expand. A lot.
Just to upgrade.
Cielo 21,39! Fratus 21,45! New 1-2 Leaders..
He’s not the first one to play with not breathing every stroke… I’ve always been intrigued by it. Will be interesting to see if he tries is in a 100, especially LC.
Doesn’t he know that psychodad doesn’t approve of this style of breaststroke!?!?
And video interview of Michael Andrew
He talks about his new breast technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eprCu20WLMM
Video interview of Vinny Marciano at Showcase.
He wants to swim a 58 in the 100 back in long course next summer!
He can do it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqrg_pZwOiA
11-year-old Christopher Hardt in Florida at Showcase as well.
Impressive times throughout the week.
Just 2 examples.
28.97 in the 50 breast and 4.30.32 in the 400 IM.
These times are probably the fastest ever swum by an 11-year-old boy.