2023 Jim Devine Memorial Invite
- October 27-29, 2023
- Mizzou Aquatic Center, Columbia, MO
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Columbia Swim Club hosted their annual Jim Devine Memorial Invite last weekend at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. As with previous years, the meet featured top age group swimmers from Missouri and the surrounding area.
14-year-old Lucy Velte from Ad Astra Area Aquatics had an outstanding showing with seven individual victories and five personal best times. Highlighting her swims was her lead-off leg on the 400 freestyle relay, where she logged a 50.49 to establish a new Missouri Valley LSC record for her age group.
Velte also dropped over two seconds in the 200 IM (2:03.87), over a second in the 200 free (1:52.18), and three tenths in the 50 free (23.07). Notably, her time of 23.07 in the 50 free moves her to 75th all-time in the girls’ 13-14 age group.
Emma Belk, 15, from Springfield Aquatics was another standout swimmer among the girls. Highlighting her schedule was the 200 freestyle, where she set a new personal best time by almost three seconds to win the event in 1:50.06. She also dropped almost three seconds en route to her victory in the 200 fly (2:01.70), as well as half a second in the 100 fly (54.84).
Austin Chu from the CSP Tideriders was on the top boys with five individual victories and a slew of personal best times. The 13-year-old knocked over three seconds off his personal best time in the 200 backstroke to hit a 1:53.15 and win the event by seven seconds.
Chu also swept both butterfly events (53.61/1:59.75) and both breaststroke events (1:01.33/2:11.16), establishing new personal best times in all four.
Other strong performances on the boys’ side of the meet came from River City Aquatics’ Nate Thomas and Ty Thomas. Nate Thomas, a Louisville commit, secured victories in the backstroke events with times of 49.55 and 1:47.14, both of which are significantly faster than he was at this meet a year ago (50.99/1:49.70).
Ty Thomas, 14, collected wins in the 50 (21.53), 100 (46.92), 200 (1:45.19), and 500 free (4:45.79), as well as the 100 back (51.05) and 400 IM (4:12.42). Nearly all of those performances marked personal bests, with the one exception being the 400 IM.
Other Top Swims:
- Whitaker Steward, 15, recorded a best time of 9:21.14 to win the 1000.
- Sydney Schoeck won the 200 backstroke (1:58.71) and both IM events (2:01.02/4:18.68).
- Louisville commit Avery Karl secured 1st in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.74, and set personal bests in the 100 back (54.95), 200 back (2:02.44), and 200 fly (2:10.24).