2020 U.S. WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS – BGNW SITE
- December 11-13, 2020
- Mount Kisco, NY
- Results on Meet Mobile: ‘2020 MR BGNW 18-Under Winter Championship’
Another day, another set of lifetime bests for 13-year-old Claire Weinstein of Westchester Aquatic Club.
Her big swim came in the 200 free, which was done after she raced the 50 free and 100 back (with only the men’s 50 free and 100 back between the three swims). Weinstein popped a 1:47.66 in the 200 free, winning by over two seconds over Badger 16-year-old Kristin Cornish (1:49.84). That’s a 1.5-second drop for Weinstein, while Cornish dropped .5 and broke 1:50 for the first time ever.
Weinstein was very steady on her splits, going out in 26.10 then holding 27.0/27.4/27.1 over the rest of the race. She was 53.1/54.5 on the 100s, quite even overall. She breaks into the 13-14 historical top 40, now the #39 performer all-time, even at the early end of the age group. She also appears to be the #2 13-year-old ever, now, behind only Claire Tuggle’s monster 1:44.96 from spring 2018.
Weinstein might’ve gone even faster if she swam the race fresh. She first won the 50 free, clocking a 23.53 for her first time under 24 seconds; her old best was a 24.00. After that, she was runner-up to BGNW’s Sabrina Johnston in the 100 back, 54.59 to 56.34. Both of them went bests, and Weinstein dropped over a full second.
It’s been an incredible weekend for the middle-schooler. Here’s a look at her swims (all lifetime bests) this weekend, in order of when she swam them.
CLAIRE WEINSTEIN‘S WEEKEND
- 1000 free – 9:43.75
- 500 free – 4:44.10
- 200 back – 1:59.85
- 100 free – 50.66
- 50 free – 23.53
- 100 back – 56.34
- 200 free – 1:47.66
Badger’s Matthew Fenlon earned two more wins this evening, first posting a 48.71 to take the 100 fly. His teammate Vanessa Chong was just off of her best to win the 100 fly on the women’s side (53.59). Fenlon came back to take the 200 free, the only finisher under 1:40 with a 1:38.70.
16-year-old Hana Shimizu-Bowers, swimming unattached, took the 400 IM with ease. She finished under 4:20, slicing two-tenths off of her old best with a 4:19.69.
Badger’s Max Hardart, who had been on a best times spree this weekend, added another in the 400 IM. He was 3:58.61, edging out teammate Jason Amato (3:59.40) and crushing his old best by four seconds. Amato, meanwhile, smashed his old best by almost six seconds.
OTHER NOTABLE SWIMS
- 15-year-old Mary-Grace Guzzino of BGNW cranked out a huge lifetime best to win the 200 breast, going 2:18.61 and taking over five seconds off of her PR.
- Justin DiSanto of Badger sliced three-tenths off of his old best to win the 50 free in 21.25.
It’s interesting what I read about how we train. We do not do a lot of yardage, in fact the first 45 mins is drills only. Only 1 practice per day is allowed, the average practice is 1 hour and 45 mins. Claire swims 6-7 practices per week. We do have boys on our team. Distance Divas was created because we had a small pool and I wanted to assure both the distance and stroke groups needs were met. Setting up separate practice times made sense. So on weekends the stroke group and distance groups swam at different times. With Covid and our pool still shut down, we can no longer provide separate practices. Wanted to get the correct info… Read more »
Why did Kate Douglas leave?
I’m doing a podcast on swimswam at 2pm tomorrow, listen in and you can find out – its all good !
This is a complete lie. 9-10 year olds train 2.5 hours 7 days a week- at least they did last year. And Claire has been swimming mornings with a coach who also works for Carle plus at Swim labs where her parents own. Claire and Alexia do much much more. And they train a lot of yardage. This information is misleading that the coach is posting. This is not magic and it takes a lot of work. Claire is also very talented and in a league of her own.
Sounds familiar how Freya Anderson split her races in ISL.
Absolutely INSANE. Would love to know how she trains. Westchester is known to pound yards. Is she also really tall? Just crazy
@lou It’s an age group team. Not many older kids. They offer about 2 hours in morning and 2 plus in afternoon. Plus weekends. Even in covid. So 12 practices for mostly 11-14 year olds. Some younger. Another post said 8 meets already this covid season. They pound yards. Posts by the team on Facebook call themselves the distance queens. I guess not many boys and a distance focus to the team.
But truly amazing times !!
Don’t forget – this is the same team that produced Kate Douglass. So, it’s not all distance.
They don’t pound yards. Badger pounds yards and got me a shoulder surgery 👌
She’s ginormous, just shy of 6 foot and filled out – definitely not your average 13 year old. She’s also extremely talented, obviously!
Sorry it’s distance divas not queens! Crazy nonetheless how fast they are and dedicated to distance sets at 12 and 13. Nice to see a girl team too!! And all that practice time and meets in hard hit new Rochelle.
Congrats to this amazing young lady. I’m surprised Alexa Reyna wasn’t mentioned this weekend. She competed in the French championships this weekend and won a silver medal. Thankfully her coach highlighted her on her westchester aquatics page. It’s great to see these girls get these cuts considering we are in a pandemic with most clubs not having access to pools or meets or swim labs . But let’s not forget that they do have access whereas most in the metro area do not .