American swimmer Melanie Margalis and Colombian Omar Pinzon have been named the high point award winners at the 2016 USA Swimming Winter National Championships.
Both team and individual points were awarded similarly to the NCAA Championships. Swimmers from 1st through 16th place were eligible to score, though a swimmer in the B final cannot advance ahead of a swimmer in the A-Final, and a swimmer in the A-final cannot fall behind a swimmer in the B- Final. Scoring is as follows, by place, in the A final: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11 an B final: 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Margalis, swimming in her first yards meet in two years, won the 200 IM, 200 free, and 100 breaststroke to pick up 60 points in spite of skipping the Saturday evening finals session of the meet. University of Minnesota undergrad Brooke Zeiger, who won the 400 IM and the 1650, setting a Big Ten record in the latter, finished second with 57 points (she was also runner-up in the 500 free).
Unlike in the team scoring, international swimmers were not excluded from the individual high point awards rankings. The result was that the top 3 finishers on the men’s side of the pool were all internationals. Omar Pinzon of Colombia led with 61 individual points, followed by University of Indiana undergraduates Vini Lanza (Brazil) and Marwan el Kamash (Egypt) finishing 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Pinzon didn’t win any events, but did finish as high as 2nd, in the 200 back.
The top-placing American men were Tom Shields and Sam Pomajevich, who tied for 4th with 53 points each.
Top 11 Female point scorers:
- Melanie Margalis, St. Petersburg Aquatics – 60
- Brooke Zeiger, University of Minnesota – 57
- Lindsey Clary, Ohio State University – 53
- Meg Bailey, Ohio State University – 50
- Caroline Baldwin, University of North Carolina – 50
- Miranda Tucker, Club Wolverine – 49
- Sarah Hitchens, University of North Carolina – 45
- Hannah Moore, NC State University – 44
- Danielle Nack, University of Minnesota – 41
- Nikol Popov, Canyons Aquatic Club – 41
- Vanessa Pearl, Metroplex Aquatics – 41
Top 10 Male point scorers:
- Omar Pinzon, FAST Swim Team – 61
- Vini Lanza, Indiana University – 57
- Marwan el Kamash, Indiana University – 54
- Tom Shields, California Aquatics – 53
- Sam Pomajevich, NCAP – 53
- Jacob Molacek, Greater Omaha Aquatics – 47
- Jack Dolan, Rockwood Swim Club – 45
- Juan Sequera, Unattached – 44
- Maxime Rooney, University of Florida – 42
- Bob Glover, Indiana University – 42