14-year-old Claire Curzan has already been on a tear through the 13-14 National Age Group (NAG) record books in short course yards, and she broke her first long course meters NAG in that age group this morning.
Curzan was 59.00 in the 100-meter fly prelims of the Richmond Pro Swim Series this morning, crushing the old NAG record by half a second. The record had stood for ten years, set in 2009 by Kendyl Stewart at the peak of the super-suit era. Prior to Stewart’s 59.51 swim the NAG record had stood at 59.71 for 30 years, courtesy of Mary T. Meagher in 1979.
Prior to this morning, Curzan’s best time was a 59.82 – she’d set that at Winter Nationals in December. That ranked her 5th in age group history, but she leapfrogged the entire top four this morning with another shot to take the NAG below 59 seconds in tonight’s final. Curzan qualified third, behind Kelsi Dahlia and Farida Osman.
Curzan went out in 27.71 and came home in 31.29 for that 59.00 swim.
In short course yards, Curzan has already broken NAG records in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly in 2019. She and her TAC Titans teammates have also broken two relay NAGs: the 200 free and 400 medley relays in short course. (Curzan also broke the 200-yard fly NAG, but that record has since been broken). Prior to today, Curzan’s only long course NAG was a 27.91 in the 50-meter fly in the 11-12 age group. That record was set in 2017.
The swim is also a breakthough in the girls 13-14 long course record books. That age group’s record books are loaded with some historic names (Meagher, Sippy Woodhead, Amanda Beard, Missy Franklin), but also had only seen one individual record fall since 2012. Most of the 14 records in that age group are from at least a decade ago: 3 remain from the ’70s, 2 from the ’90s and 4 from 2009. Becca Mann set three records in 2012, but since then, only Curzan and Regan Smith (2016 NAG record in 100 back) have broken 13-14 individual NAGs.
I bumped into Claire at her home pool on Sunday, and I’m pretty sure she’s taller than she was in February at the High School Champs I announced.
I don’t remember the last time she swam a finals race slower than she swam in prelims. Would not be out of the realm of possibility to see her go 57 tonight.
That might sound a little crazy, except for the fact that she’s already been a 50.6 for yards.
The only thing that would give me pause is the fact that she went over half the race SC underwater, and she did it next to Regan Smith who also was capable of going 50 point. With less underwaters I would be a bit skeptical to see a 57, but given that she’s going to get a great race with Dahlia and Osman makes it believable.
Completely agree on your comments. I’d be shocked to see her add tonight. She has a long, efficient, loping stroke and great underwaters. And she’s getting faster by the minute. And she’s NOT scared of these people. I don’t see a 57 but I sure could see a 58.5 or slightly better.
You’re special if you’re taking down a Mary T (no disrespect to Kendyl who is a brilliant swimmer, but you know, 2009 and all that)
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Curzan also broke the 200y fly NAG in February. https://staging.swimswam.com/claire-curzan-breaks-her-teammates-national-age-record-in-200-fly/
That’s true, although that record has already been broken by someone else.
Thanks for the context about how old the lcm 13-14 NAG records are as a whole. That’s really interesting, especially considering it feels like a real boom in age group swimming and records lately. I wonder why.
It’s actually the same situation that has happened with women’s swimming records in late 60s- early 70s when world records were very short lived: the competition was undeveloped.
Why are young swimmers paying more attention to record setting races and why their coaches and parents are up to that too is another question. It can be inspiring examples of young stars like Ledecky or Franklin. It could be money concern that includes raising personal ranking for being in better demand during college recruiting process, it could be simply temporary cultural feature since records are not that hard beatable by far.
And of course it can be simply that we are witnessing the wave of incredible talents that just… Read more »
I’m actually wonder why MORE 13-14 lcm records haven’t been broken lately. Sorry if my comment was unclear.
Claire Tuggle has a few more months to break Sippy Woodhead’s 200m and 400m NAG records from 1978. Tuggle is currently 2nd and 4th all-time respectively on the 13-14 age lists.