2024 FLORIDA SWIMMING SPRING SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 7-10, 2024
- FAST, Ocala, Florida
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Central/Results
- Psych Sheets
- Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap | Day 3 Recap
- Day 1 Boys Results | Day 1 Girls Results | Day 2 Results | Day 3 Results | Day 4 Results
This week’s Florida Swimming Senior Championships has had a lot of good storylines, from new LSC Records to an impressive quad by Lillie Nesty on Saturday, but the day that attracted the most national and international intrigue was Sunday, where Olympic gold medalists Bobby Finke and Katie Ledecky swam the 1650 yard freestyles, both eschewing the long course Pro Swim to stay closer to home.
Both swimmers came away with wins in their signature races, though neither scared their personal bests in the races.
Finke won the boys’ race in 14:34.70 in his first short course mile since the 2022 NCAA Championships. That time is a similar result to the one he swam in a late-2020 dual meet in the run-up to his double Olympic gold medals in the 800 and 1500 free, so that’s a good sign for his pending summer.
He has a best time of 14:12.08 – the American Record – from the 2020 SEC Championships.
In the girls’ race, Ledecky won in 15:29.34, which was about 28-seconds shy of her swim at this meet last year that was the fastest-ever in the event. While this meet was of no real consequence (like Finke, she won by roughly a minute), that is her slowest time in the event since the 2012 NCSA Junior National Championships when she was only 15 and just beginning her rise to superstardom.
She was out fairly-aggressively in the race, opening in 4:33, but faded as the race went on. She split 29s on 7 of the last 8 50s; she was never slower than 28.04 on any split in his race last season.
The swimmer who finished 2nd, a minute back, herself climbed the all-time age group rankings. 14-year-old Brinkleigh Hansen from St. Petersburg Aquatics was 2nd in 16:29.56, knocking 25 seconds off her previous best time in the race. That now moves her into the top 80 13-14s of all-time in the race.
While the Olympic gold medalists were the headliners of the day, some of the other winners from this meet punctuated their performances with victories of their own.
That includes the aforementioned Nesty, who picked up two more wins and a runner-up performance on Sunday. She kicked things off with a win in the 100 free in 49.35. That’s faster than she had been pre-meet, though she went 49.07 on a relay leadoff on Saturday.
She followed that with a win in the 50 back in 25.15, finishing half-a-second clear of the field to defend her title (she was 25.05 last year).
That gave her five individual events wins in spite of not beginning her racing until Friday evening. That’s one more than her four wins from last season.
Her meet finished in the 200 back, where she placed 2nd in 1:55.08, which shaved .04 seconds off her previous best time from Winter Juniors in December. The winner of that race was Canadian National Team member Mabel Zavaros in 1:54.62.
Ekaterina Baranova from Berkeley Aquatics picked up her second win of the meet, taking the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.13, an improvement of almost half-a-second on her best time. She won the 50 breaststroke earlier in the meet.
Madyson Hartway from the Sarasota Sharks was 2nd in 1:02.65, and the versatile Addison Reese, who entered the day with two wins, was 3rd in 1:03.04. That led into her 200 fly, her last swim of the meet and possibly best swim of the meet, one race later. She won in 1:55.97, a new lifetime best, and was the only swimmer under two minutes in the race.
On the boys’ side, 26-year-old pro swimmer Grant Sanders, now an assistant coach with the Fast Falcons, grabbed two more wins. First, he won the 100 breaststroke in 54.21, finishing ahead of a best time of 55.31 from 15-year-old Joey Campagnola. The 3rd-place finisher by a fingernail was another 15-year-old, Luke Zardavets, in a best time of 55.33.
Sanders followed that by flexing versatility of his own, winning the 200 fly in 1:46.02 that is his best time in the event since 2021.
Thomas Frost of Loggerhead Aquatics, a Miami (OH) commit, was the top-finishing junior swimmer in 1:48.86, his best time by 1.7 seconds.
Another swimmer who wrapped his meet with another win was 16-year-old ATAC swimmer Ethan Ekk, who won the 200 back in 1:43.96. That missed his best time by .15 seconds.
Earlier this week, he had wins in the 200 free (1:35.66), 500 free (4:19.35), and the 800 free relay, plus runner-up finishes in the 800 free and 400 IM.
Aidan Levine of Tampa Bay Aquatics was the day’s other winner, leading the 50 back field in 23.03.
Final Team Scores
The Bolles School Sharks won the combined and boys’ team titles at this year’s meet. The Sarasota Sharks, who swept last year’s titles, using a huge final day to pull away from the runners-up of Bolles.
Combined Team Scores (Top 5):
- Bolles School Sharks – 4373.5
- Sarasota Sharks – 3443.5
- Planet Swim Aquatics – 1835
- Gator Swim Club – 1335
- Fast Falcons – 1260
Boys’ Team Scores (Top 5):
- Bolles School Sharks – 2500
- Sarasota Sharks – 1171
- Planet Swim Aquatics – 1029
- ATAC – 921
- Fast Falcons – 858
Girls’ Team Scores (Top 5):
- Sarasota Sharks – 2272.5
- Bolles School Sharks – 1873.5
- Planet Swim Aquatics – 806
- Gator Swim Club – 754
- Saint Petersburg Aquatics – 587
With Ledecky’s swim here and Caroline Pennington’s 40 second add in the 1650 at SEC’s, i’m a bit concerned for florida’s distance unit. Hopefully it’s just them not being tapered, but you don’t usually add that much
I really don’t think you can look too much into Florida’s results at any level right now. The pros have their blinders on for Trials, and she went 1:56 and 4:02 just last month. She was 4:33 at the 500 and 9:12 at the 1000, which is booking it. Remember, this is a team that swept wins in every men’s freestyle pool event at the last Olympic Trials and went on to win medals in all but one of them in the Olympics. Four of the five were gold. Nesty knows how to get it done when it’s time, and he’s already proven he can get it done with Katie.
Has Ledecky ever taken a real break? I can’t recall her ever taking more than a month off of swimming.
she needs a real break omg 😭
Her only longish break was after the Olympics when she decided to reset, change coaches, become a Florida Gator and moved to Gainesvlle.Maybe 6 weeks but imagone she was still int the pool.
Somewhat concerned about Ledecky. She hasn’t looked amazing this year. May just be the Florida way and she will be great at the right time but it hasn’t been like this the last few years with them. Also I remember Janet Evans slowing down suddenly her last Olympic year so can’t help wonder if it is happening again to the most amazing distance swimmer. Staying on top as long as she has is incredible but really tough too. Let’s hope it is just heavy training.
it feels odd as well but i think florida will be fine by trials
All of these meets leading up to Trials are indicators and this isn’t a great one, being 30 sec slower than last year. When stars start slowing down, you can feel it in the lead-up to Trials. In addition to Janet Evans, I remember this kind of happening to Natalie Coughlin in 2012 where she was good, but not great in the pro swim series meets, and that trajectory turned out to be true at Trails.. And Simone in 2021. As much as I hope it’s not happening to Ledecky and she nails her taper for Trials/Paris, I do think it’s possible she comes back down to earth this year. She is getting older and it just gets tougher and… Read more »
She’s older, of course she can no longer swim extra fast everytime like she used to. And that’s fine.
She’ll be okay in trials.
Looking at the splits, she was 27 something for the first 500, then started shutting it down split high 27 or 28 for next 600, one or two 29s in hte lst third and a 27 something for the last 50. If anyone can control her swims it is Ledecky, so hard to say. She did swim a 4:02 in the 400 at the previous meet. As much as I think she would like to break 15:00 in the 1650, and her fans woould love it, this was not the race to do it. Her focus is on Trials and hopefully Paris. Have my Trials tickets and hope to see vintage Ledecky like last year.
Finke’s time is decent for him in season, he’s not going to crack his record without some rest. Ledecky though…not sure what to make of her swim. She’s been slower this season than last in several meets. But she swam incredibly well with Florida training the last couple summers, so I’ll reserve judgement until trials.
I really want Ledecky and Finke to go all in on the SCY US Open this year and hopefully break some barriers. I realize that tapering the pros for a meet like that is not a thing Florida does, but I’ll keep hoping.
Wishful thinking on my part.
The Olympics is the focus this year not sub 15 minute 1650 yd freestyle.
I believe Katie and Bobby are going to do very well this summer.
I’m getting worried about Katie. She is giving me overtraining vibes. Simone vibes. This is Olympic year and we need her to be in great shape for the 4 peat 800. She deserves that! I hope the Florida coaches are doing everything right
sad we didn’t get sub-15 from ledecky:(
What does it matter? It is just a time at a meaningless meet. So what?
we’re gonna get it when scy us open happens. TRUST!! rn her focus is trials