Nine Meet Records Fall at Illinois Senior Championships

2019 Illinois Swimming SCY Senior Champs

• February 28-March 3rd, 2019
• Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IL
• Short Course Yards
• Full PDF Results

TOP 5 TEAM SCORES

MEN

1. Fox Valley Swim Team – 777.5
2. Glenbrook Swim Club – 648.5
3. St Charles Swim Team – 447.5
4. Academy Bullets – 390.5
5. Wheaton Swim Club – 378

WOMEN

1. Academy Bullets Swim Club – 827
2. Fox Valley Swim Team – 613
3. St Charles Swim Team – 576.5
4. Patriot Aquatic Club – 401
5. New Trier Aquatics – 301

The Illinois Swimming Senior Championships were held this past weekend in Lincolnshire, IL. After a whopping 14 meet records were broken at this meet last year, another 9 were broken this year. Unlike last year, the majority of records were broken in men’s events (5 of 9).

Nick Vance (West Chicago Sharks) and Liam Hutchinson (Wheaton Swim Club) each broke a pair of men’s records. Vance, a Florida State recruit, first broke his own meet record in the 400 IM. He swam a speedy 3:50.44 in prelims to establish a new personal best by 1 second. He was slightly slower, 3:51.05, in finals, but still managed to win the event handily. His previous meet record was 3:53.53. He also went on to break Reed Malone‘s 200 fly meet record of 1:48.25 with a 1:47.96 in finals, dropping half a second. Vance also won the 200 back (1:45.07/1:44.34p), 100 back (48.70), 200 IM (1:48.28), and 1000 free (9:17.16).

Hutchinson, a Notre Dame recruit, first broke the 200 free meet record, blasting a 1:37.31. That undercut the previous record of 1:37.67, set last year by now Louisville swimmer Colton Paulson. He then shattered the 500 free meet record of 4:28.12, throwing down a 4:24.00. Fellow Notre Dame recuit Topher Stensby (Patriot Aquatic Club) broke his own met record in the men’s 50 free. Stensby posted a lifteime best 19.76, solidly breaking his 20.03 meet record.

There were two individual women’s meet records broken. The first was at the hands of 15-year-old Rachel Stege (Fox Valley Swim team). Stege won the women’s mile, dropping 43 seconds from just late January to swim a 16:21.50. Notably, that appears to be only the 3rd time Stege has swum the 1650, the first of which occured in early January of this year. The previous meet record stood at 16:27.18. Stege also won the 500 free (4:45.40), and 1000 free (9:51.33).

16-year-old Anna Peplowski (WAVES Bloomington/Normal) was the other women’s individual event record breaker. Peplowski dropped a 1:57.86 to undercut former teammate Grace Ariola‘s meet record of 1:58.02. Similar to Stege, this was only Peplowski’s 4th time racing the 200 back, with the first time racing it having been just four months ago, in October of 2018.

The last two records broken were women’s relays. Patriot Aquatic Club broke the women’s 400 medley relay record. The squad of Ashley Carollo (55.56), Hannah Liu (1:02.98), Emma Gleason (53.93), and Sophia Goushchina (50.18) combined for a final time of 3:42.65, besting the previous record of 3:43.50. The Fox Valley Swim Team sqaud of Megan Ciezczak, Tiffanie Ruan, Rachel Stege, and McKenna Stone teamed up for a 3:22.32 in the 400 free relay, shattering the previous record of 3:25.65. Unfortunately, there was a timing error, and the splits are unavailable.