SGSA 67th Annual Eastern Invitational
- June 15-18, 2023
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
- LCM (50 meters)
- Results on MeetMobile: “SGSA 67th Annual Eastern Invitational”
The 67th Annual Eastern Invitational was held earlier this month in Greensboro, North Carolina. SwimMAC Carolina dominated the team standings, as they tallied a total of 7134 points with 38 event wins.
Headlining SwimMac’s team was 13-year-old David Sammons. Sammons won six of his 10 events, and set personal best times in seven of them. Highlighting his schedule was the 200 IM, where he dropped four seconds to win with a time of 2:12.03. His performance moves him 10th this season for 13-14 boys, and 2nd among 13-year-olds.
Sammons also dropped nearly thirty seconds from his best time set last year in the 400 IM (4:47.94) and over two seconds in the 50 freestyle (25.53), winning both of them. Rounding out his victories was the 100 fly (58.75), 200 fly (2:12.03), and 200 back (2:13.36), with the 100 fly also marking a new personal best.
Florida commit Sofia Plaza from SwimMac secured an Olympic Trials qualifying time en route to her victory in the 200 IM. She stopped the clock at 2:15.97, which is just over a second quicker than her previous best set in May. This Plaza’s second Olympic Trials cut, as she already picked one up in the 400 IM in March.
Among the other standout swimmers was Rachel Bernhardt, who represents Team Charlotte Swimming. Bernhardt won the 100 breast with a 1:10.20 in finals, but swam a 1:08.37 in prelims. Her season best stands at 1:07.45, and ranks 4th among Americans this year.
Bernhardt, 28, graduated from Drexel in 2017. She now works as an occupational therapist while continuing to pursue her swimming career, a story that was picked up by the Wall Street Journal this week.
Joining Bernhardt from Team Charlotte was Matthew Josa, Nic Eriksson, and Ilya Evdokimov who won an event each. Josa hit a 53.55 in the 100 fly, while Erikkson and Evdokimov swept the breast events with times of 1:03.42 and 2:19.55, respectively.
Leading the way for the younger athletes was 10-year-olds Tony Machavariani and Ellie Layton from SwimMac. Machavariani won nine events in his age group with three personal best times. He swept the butterfly events, swimming personal bests of 33.95 and 1:16.51. Layton won a total of six events, going personal best times in four of them. One of her biggest drops came in the 100 fly, where she knocked off over two seconds to touch first at 1:24.30.