The 17-18 girls of SwimMAC Carolina continued their assault on the National Age Group record books Saturday, breaking the 400 free relay mark to close Speedo East Winter Juniors.
A day after breaking the 200 free relay record in both the 15-18 and 17-18 age groups, the same quartet of Alyssa Marsh, Erika Brown, Christina Lappin and Jessica Merritt went 3:16.62 to take down the 17-18 record in the 400 free relay.
Once again, that group took down their former teammates’ record, set in the spring of 2014. The previous record was a 3:18.55 set by Kathleen Baker, Rebecca Postoll, Heather Merritt and Lauren Rhodes at the Charlotte Sectional meet. The current SwimMAC crew blew that record out of the water, taking nearly two seconds off it, and that is made even more impressive by the fact that the prior record had stood for 23 years before the 2014 SwimMAC crew broke it.
This time, though, the SwimMAC girls couldn’t quite knock off the 15-18 NAG record, which stands at 3:15.38 from the Carmel Swim Club.
Here’s a look at the splits of the three relays:
| SwimMAC 2015 | 17-18 SwimMAC 2014 | 15-18 Carmel Swim Club 2015 | |||
| Alyssa Marsh | 48.77 | Kathleen Baker | 48.20 | Veronica Burchill | 48.48 |
| Erika Brown | 48.72 | Rebecca Postoll | 49.55 | Claire Adams | 48.68 |
| Christina Lappin | 49.49 | Heather Merritt | 50.75 | Kendall Smith | 50.52 |
| Jessica Merritt | 49.64 | Lauren Rhodes | 50.05 | Amy Bilquist | 47.70 |
| 3:16.62 | 3:18.55 | 3:15.38 | |||
Once again, the 2015 SwimMAC crew rolled on consistency, becoming the first relay in that age group to place all four splits under 50 seconds, including two under 49.