USA Swimming club teams chasing mixed-gender relay National Age Group Records now have a set of target times to chase. About a year after the approval of these newest records were announced, the organization published the benchmark times for long course meter races this week – key timing as long course season is heating up nationally.
Click here to see the full list of benchmark times, and those recognized broken records so far.
The benchmarks were set based on the fastest time on August 31st, 2018 – though that was before teams were putting real effort into chasing these mixed relay records.
To date, USA Swimming has recognized 8 mixed-gender National Age Group Records in long course. No 10 & under swims have broken the benchmark yet, nor any 15-16 relays.
The latest record-breakers are Irvine Novaquatics in California. A week ago, at the 2019 Age Group Summer Slam Duals in Fresno, the relay of Derek Hitchens, Elson Lee, Lia Wiyanto, and Xihan Lin combined for a 2:06.79 That clipped the benchmark time of 2:12.02 easily, and makes them one of 6 relays to clear the benchmark time this year (and, in fact, all 6 were at that same meet).