Future Aggie Sarah Holt Among Night 3 Winners of YMCA Spring Festival–Oxford

2021 YMCA SPRING FESTIVAL – OXFORD

• Wednesday, March 31 – Saturday, April 3, 2021
• Miami University, Oxford, OH
• Hosted by Powel Crosley Jr YMCA
• SCY (25y)
• Championship Format
• Festival Info
• Event Page
• Meet Packet
• Complete Prelims Heat Sheets
• Night 1 Recap
• Night 2 Recap
• Results on Meet Mobile as “2021 OH AP YMCA Swimming Festival Miami Site”

Team Scores (After Night 3)

Top 5 Combined Teams

1. Powel Crosley Jr YMCA, 668.5
2. Blue Ash YMCA, 530.5
3. Springfield Family YMCA, 511
4. YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, 431
5. Lancaster YMCA, 344.5

Top 5 Men’s Teams

1. Powel Crosley Jr YMCA, 361
2. Blue Ash YMCA, 343.5
3. Springfield Family YMCA, 285.5
4. Birmingham YMCA, 281.5
5. Lancaster YMCA, 183.5

Top 5 Women’s Teams

1. South (KEY) YMCA, 352
2. Powel Crosley Jr YMCA, 307.5
3. YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, 273
4. Springfield Family YMCA, 225.5
5. Blue Ash YMCA, 187

The penultimate day of the 2021 YMCA Spring Festival at Miami University is now in the books with the conclusion of Friday evening’s finals session. During yesterday’s session, the A and B finals of the 200 fly, 100 back, 100 breast, and 800 free relay timed finals were contested. The combined Powel Crosley Jr YMCA (PCY) team has maintained their lead for the third day in a row as current runner-up Blue Ash YMCA sits 19.5 points ahead of Springfield Family YMCA (SPY). PCY also leads the men’s team scores while the South YMCA women maintain their single-gender score lead.

Night 3 Individual Highlights

Among the winners on Friday were 18-year-old Sarah Holt of Northwest Louisiana, who is committed to swim for Texas A&M in fall 2021. Holt was the only sub-2:00 performer in the women’s 200 fly, stopping the clock at 1:59.64. Holt has now swept the butterfly events here in Oxford after winning the 100 fly (54.28) on Thursday. Later on in the evening, Holt would lead off the winning 4×200 free relay in a 1:52.33, which would have placed 3rd in yesterday’s individual event final.

Placing second to Holt in the 200 fly was 18-year-old McKenzie Reid of South YMCA (2:02.77) and third when to Lancaster 17-year-old Mia Hensley (2:03.86).

Picking up his third win of the meet was PCY 18-year-old Luke Paxton, who won the men’s 200 fly in a sub-1:50 effort of 1:49.05, which is among the top 100 times in 17-18 age group this season. Earlier in the meet, Paxton won event titles in the 200 IM (1:49.47) and 100 fly (48.05). Paxton would also go on to lead off PCY’s runner-up 800 free relay in an individual effort of 1:38.05, which would have easily won yesterday’s final by three full seconds.

Placing second in the men’s 200 fly was 17-year-old Jeffrey Cochran of Northwest Louisiana (1:51.72) while 15-year-old Bryce Menchhofer of Blue Ash YMCA swam 1:52.94 for third place.

Another swimmer winning a third event in Oxford was 15-year-old Amy Pan of Farmington Family YMCA. During the women’s 100 back AM prelims, Pan earned the middle lane with her top time of 55.02, which ranks No. 21 in the 15&U age group for the 2020-2021 season. Pan would later win the PM final with a 55.09 effort. Pan previously won the 50 free (23.05) on Wednesday night and the 200 free (1:49.60) on Thursday night.

Swimming under 56 seconds to take runner-up to Pan was PCY 16-year-old Lauren Clippard (55.27) and taking third was SPY 17-year-old Reese Turner (56.48). South YMCA 15-year-old Ella Leibold (57.19) touched out Northwest Louisiana 16-year-old Evelyn Zhang (57.20) by one one-hundredth of a second for fourth place.

Into the men’s 100 back, 17-year-old Birmingham Blue Dolphin Drew Collins took the win in a sub-50 effort of 49.27, which ranks among the top-90 times in the 17&U age group. Great Miami Valley 18-year-old Tyler Schehr (51.32) took second place by 0.25s over 17-year-old Lancaster Stingray Connor Green (51.57).

Auglaize-Mercer County 18-year-old Claire Gass touched out Blue Ash 18-year-old Kathy Zhao by eight one-hundredths for the 100 breast win 1:04.87 to 1:04.95. 16-year-old Green YMCA Barracuda Olivia Elgin finished in third at 1:05.61.

Finishing off the individual events was the men’s 100 breast, where 15-year-old Ethan Schwab of Birmingham YMCA took the win at 56.06. Schwab’s swim currently ranks among the top-35 times in 15-16 age group as well as ranking No. 7 among 15&U swimmers this season. Schwab is also now one of the top-60 fastest 15-year-olds in the event since 2010.

Finishing in second place was Blue Ash 14-year-old Jason Zhao, whose swim of 57.55 is a half second off his season best of 56.93. SPY 17-year-old Christian Narcelles placed third at 57.94 while Indy 14-year-old Preston Kessler placed fourth at 58.15, which ranks No. 18 in the 14&U age group this season.

Night 3 Relays

The Northwest Louisiana women took another relay title in the 800 free relay, featuring Sarah Holt‘s 1:52.33 lead-off leg, aiding their win by two seconds over the PCY women. The South YMCA women rounded out the top three women’s relays.

On the men’s side, Luke Paxton led the PCY relay off in a 1:38.05 while Erik Menchhofer led Blue Ash YMCA off in a 1:39.96. For the SPY relay, 14-year-old Jarrett Payne led off in a 1:41.00, which ranks No. 7 in the 14&U age group this season. However, it was the Blue Ash men who touched out the PCY men by 0.19s for the relay win while SPY settled for third place.

Women’s 800 Free Relay

1. Northwest Louisiana, 7:39.17 — S. Holt (1:52.33), L. England (1:59.25), E. Zhang (1:55.43), B. Fegley (1:52.16)
2. Powel Crosley Jr, 7:41.89 — M. Pressler (1:53.69), M. Hagenauer (1:56.93), K. McMenemy (1:57.8), L. Clippard (1:53.47)
3. South YMCA, 7:52.51 — A. Leibold (1:58.87), E. Tenhundfeld (1:57.69), M. Reid (1:57.40), A. Tenhundfeld (1:58.55)

Men’s 800 Free Relay

1. Blue Ash YMCA, 6:45.01 — E. Menchhofer (1:39.96), B. Menchhofer (1:42.34), D. Held (1:43.66), J. Zhao (1:39.05)
2. Powel Crosley Jr, 6:45.20 — L. Paxton (1:38.05), N. Gockerman (1:42.75), M. Bencurik (1:43.76), A. Lamping (1:40.64)
3. Springfield Family, 6:53.33 — J. Payne (1:41.00), E. Blazer (1:44.46), J. Humphrey (1:45.15), C. Narcelles (1:42.72)

Anchoring the Blue Ash men was 14-year-old Jason Zhao in a flying relay split of 1:39.05, which is (unofficially) the 10th-fastest time in 13-14 age group history. His time is also the third-fastest time in the 13-14 age group this season only behind now-15 Daniel Diehl (1:36.75) and Thomas Heilman (1:38.81).

ALL TIME TOP 100 AGE GROUP TIMES – MEN’S 200 FR SCY – 13-14

1. Daniel Diehl, 1:36.75 — 2020
2. Destin Lasco, 1:38.24 — 2016
3. Michael Andrew, 1:38.31 — 2014
4. Maxime Rooney, 1:38.42 — 2012
5. Cooper Lucas, 1:38.58 — 2020
6. Thomas Heilman, 1:38.81 — 2020
7. Trey Freeman, 1:38.82 — 2015
8. Nick Silverthorn, 1:38.94 — 2010
9. **Jason Zhao, 1:39.05r — 2021**
10. Dimiter Zafirov, 1:39.08 — 2019

The final preliminary session of the 2021 YMCA Spring Festival in Oxford will feature the 100 free, 200 back, and 200 breast, which will take place starting at 10am ET. Then, the fastest heats of the 1650 free will start off the last finals session, followed by each individual event’s respective A and B finals, and topping off with the 400 free relay timed finals. The last session will begin at 5pm ET in Oxford.