The 13-14 boys from the King Aquatic Club in Federal Way, Washington have broken the National Age Group Record in the boys’ 200 yard medley relay.
Swimming on Friday evening at the Northwest Region Short Course Age Group Championships, the team of Tyler Lu, Alejandro Flores, Vladislav Elizarov, and individual National Age Group Record holder Ethan Dang combined for a 1:35.83.
That shaved a tenth-of-a-second off of the old National Age Group Record which was done by the Bolles School Sharks in 2012. Notably, that Bolles relay didn’t include any of the generation who are now international level stars like Joseph Schooling, Ryan Murphy, or Caeleb Dressel.
Comparative splits:
| KING | Bolles | |
| 1:35.83 | 1:35.94 | |
| Backstroke | Lu 24.45 | Mahaffey 24.57 |
| Breaststroke | Flores – 26.20 | Daugherty 26.70 |
| Butterfly | Elizarov – 23.59 | Garcia 23.15 |
| Freestyle | Dang – 21.59 | Rice 21.52 |
While Dang is the best-known name among the King swimmers on this relay, being primarily a breaststroker, he was swimming out-of-spot in this relay (though he’s still a very good freestyler).
When looking at the splits, though, it’s clear why the relay was done that way – Flores’ 26.20 was a difference-maker on this relay when compared to the old Bolles relay record, and so the KING coaches had the flexibility to move Dang to the freestyle leg.
Dang and Flores finished 1st and 2nd in the individual 100 breaststroke as well, posting times of 55.23 and 57.81, respectively.
Dang’s 55.23 in the 100 breast is a new PB by 1.16s.
He’s number 3 all-time in the 13/14 age category behind Whitley (53.06) and Andrew (53.88).
Congratulations boys! On a side note, Jack Conger was never apart of Bolles, did you perhaps mean to say Ryan Murphy?