Saturday night at the 2013 Sectional Championship meet in Federal Way was the busiest of the meet, with the usual suspects rising to the top of the heap.
Olympian Missy Franklin kicked the session off with a new Meet Record in the 100 backstroke. She swam a 51.18, to break her prelims swim that had been the record of 52.70. Prior to today, the Meet Record belonged to her fellow Coloradoan Bonnie Brandon at 53.42; Brandon is currently a freshman at Arizona.
Franklin, who’s broken a few National Age Group Records and almost broken an American Record at this meet, has been a little better than that time.
Hannah Weiss from King was 2nd in 52.89.
Franklin’s fellow Cal Golden Bear Tyler Messerschmidt, on break from his college career while trying to straighten out his grades back home in Arizona, won the 100 back in 47.81. That’s a new Meet Record for him as well. The record was briefly held this morning by Daryl Turner of the Aces Swim Club, and they both went under that mark in finals. The Minnesota commit Turner was the runner-up in 47.88.
Thane Maudslien was 3rd in 48.53, but his teammate Thomas Anderson, who is only 14 years old, took 4th in a new National Age Group Record of 48.78. He was one of two 14-year olds in this final; Scottsdale’s Ryan Hoffer took 8th in 49.88. (Read more about Anderson’s record here).
Missy’s second swim of the day was the 500 free, where she was back to her old ways of best times at the meet. She swam a 4:34.62 to crush Amber McDermott’s meet record (4:40) and cut more than two seconds from her own personal best time. Franklin now moves to 6th on the all-time 17-18 list in the event: one that she’s not best known for but where she clearly has the talent to be a real star if she puts any focus on it at the college level.
Open water National Team swimmer Christine Jennings took 2nd in the race in 4:44.39.
The men’s 500 was won by Carter Griffin of the Denver Hilltoppers in 4:23.02. He’ll be a good fit at Missouri next season, where they’ve built a good nucleus of distance swimmers including Eegan Groome.
Martin Wallace was 2nd in that race in 4:25.25, followed by Peter Kotson of the Helena Lions and Nathan Mueller from the Denver Swim Academy.
Kotson’s swim, of note, in 4:25.72 was a personal best by more than five seconds and a new Montana State Record. The second-fastest 500 freestyler in the LSC’s history is now 7 seconds behind his time. (Only 25 Montanans have ever been under five minutes in the event).
Carolyn McCann from King won the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.93, which is a best time for the high school junior by more than a second. The men’s version of the same race was won by Thomas Brewer of Current Swimming, to complete a breaststroke double for him, in 54.32. University of Utah swimmer Ken Tiltges was close behind in 54.65.
The women’s 100 fly title went to Jasmine Mau from the Kamehameha Swim program in Hawaii with a new Meet Record of 52.77. The record coming into the meet was a 53.24 from Cal swimmer Kelly Naze in 2010. Michelle Cefal took 2nd place in 53.54. For Cefal, that was short of a best time, and relatively less impressive than her big 200 fly from earlier in the meet. Still a very good result, though, for the future Tennessee Volunteer who will head to a team next season looking for a new star for its legendary butterfly group.
Maudslien finished the session with a win in the 100 fly in 48.05; he’s headed to Arizona next year, and won some bragging rights over future Cal Bear Long Gutierrez, who was 2nd in 48.17. Masters Swimmer 33-year old Brett Creager from Arizona Gold took 3rd in 48.23.
In the 400 free relays, no surprise again as the Scottsdale Aquatic Club won the men’s race and the Colorado Stars took the women’s. Messerschmidt anchored for SAC in 42.73, and Franklin anchored for the Stars in 46.72.
Seems like we should all just let Todd Schmitz and Missy figure out whats best for them.. It has worked out in the past. She will show up and be incredible when the US needs her to this summer.
My concern for Miss Franklin is whether by tapering for a March competition of dubious significance (other than to her club which has obviously benefited greatly from her relay contributions), Missy may well have hurt her chances of her (and the country) medaling this summer, where the competition will be ferocious and the majority of her rivals narrowly focused on training and tapering for that single most important meet of 2013.
She’s young and different training for long course and short course swimming is not to effect her in worlds. In the past all elite swimmers did college in just in the past 2 deacdes this has not been the case. Mark Spitz during the time where you could not… Read more »
I think Rachel B was the only high school swimmer under 51 even Tran didn’t do a sub 51 until 19 years old. So hold your horses here So, Missy is not swimming that bad in sohrt course.
I think your burying the lead here: what woman (or man) goes that fast in the 100 back AND 500 free?!? That time will final at NCAAs in the 500…who knew Missy would be within 4 seconds of the American record in the 5?!?
It should be another chapter in the “talent of a generation” story.
Teri must be grinning even bigger!
First “disappointing race” of the meet for Missy in the 100 back. I expected a 50.50. She hasn’t definitely the required SCY full package yet to swim these times. After a few months at Cal she should dramatically improve her starts, turns and underwaters. And the sub 50 will naturally come. We must be patient.
But with Missy a “disappointing race” is generally followed by a great performance and it again happened like that in the 500 free. She had said in a recent swimswam interview she worked much more freestyle than backstroke on training and we see the results today. It will pay off for her 200 free next summer.
Races to watch on Sunday are the… Read more »
Have to agree with Bobo here about the disappointment, and I’m considerable less optimistic than he is on a 1:53 in the W 200 IM tonight, expecting 1:55 low to be realistic.
Well I think the results from the past few days really speak for themselves.
Missy Franklin is, unfortunately, not the force to be reckoned with in short course yardage that she often is in long course, no American records having been approached in these sessions by her, rested as she is.
The upside is Teri will have an opportunity to address her to-be protege’s vulnerabilities in SCY later this year – but speculation aside, it seems that Missy’s bread and butter will remain in the LCM… Read more »
Missy Franklin may have let down the United States of America by tapering for her March sectional meet!! You have absolutely outdone yourself. I’m beyond impressed.