14-Year-Old Evan Pan-Wang Rips 52.12 100 Free at TAGS, No. 9 in NAG Rankings

2024 Texas Age Group Swimming Championships

• July 17-21, 2024
• Texas A&M University Student Rec Center
  • College Station, Texas
• LCM (50 meters)
• Results on MeetMobile: “2024 Texas Age Group Swimming LC Champs”

Boys Team Scores

1. Lakeside Aquatic Club – 1,334
2. Nitro Swimming – 1,161
3. Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club – 791
4. Alamo Area Aquatic Association – 754
5. Mansfield Aquatic Club – 578

Metroplex Aquatics 14-year-old Evan Pan-Wang clocked one of the fastest 100-meter freestyles ever in his age group during the Texas Age Group Championship earlier this month in College Station.

Pan-Wang posted a time of 52.12 in the 100 free, dropping almost a second off his previous-best 53.03 from May’s Canadian Trials to move up to 9th in the U.S. boys 13-14 national age group (NAG) rankings. It is unclear at this point whether he is representing the U.S. or Canada, but his new lifetime best is about a second off the Canadian age group record of 51.05 set by Laon Kim last year, for reference.

Fastest 13-14 Americans, 100 Free

1. Thomas Heilman – 51.12, 2021
2. Luke Vatev – 51.21, 2024
3. Maximus Williamson – 51.25, 2021
4. Michael Andrew – 51.30, 2014
5. Noel Strauss – 51.59, 1987
6. Andrew Jovanovic – 51.66, 2009
7. Rafael Gu – 51.95, 2018
8. Kaii Winkler – 52.06, 2021
9. Evan Pan-Wang – 52.12, 2024
10. Christian Guettler – 52.20, 2024

Pan-Wang also posted a personal best in the 100 backstroke (58.11), knocking almost a second off his previous-best 58.97 from last month to rank 21st in the U.S. NAG rankings. He added four more victories in the 50 free (23.91), 200 free (1:55.74), 200 IM (2:09.75), and 200 back (2:09.32).

Lakeside Aquatic Club (LAC) 14-year-old Ethan Zhou broke a meet record in the 100 breaststroke at 1:05.83, taking down Jacob Bougaieff‘s standard of 1:06.17 from last year. Zhou now ranks 28th in the 13-14 NAG rankings. His LAC team took the boys title at TAGS with 1,334 points in total.

Texas Elite 14-year-old Bobur Jakhangirov also climbed the NAG rankings with a 100 butterfly victory in 56.31, shaving almost a second off his previous-best 57.29 from last month. He now ranks 25th all-time in his age group.

Unattached 13-year-old Edmond Reynolds keeps dropping time in the 100 breast. After blazing a 1:07.76 two weeks ago, he found another second of speed with a runner-up finish behind Zhou in 1:06.55. Reynolds ranks 70th in the 13-14 NAG rankings with plenty of time still to ascend the list. He also dropped more than a second in the 200 breast (2:28.42), lowering his previous-best 2:30.05 from last month.

Dads Club Swim Team 13-year-old Alexander Thomas cracked the top 100 NAG rankings in the 200 IM (2:10.57) at No. 95 all-time for 13-14s. He blasted three more best times in the 200 fly (2:16.53), 200 free (1:58.64), and 100 back (1:00.87).

Girls Recap

Team Scores

1. Lakeside Aquatic Club – 2,258
2. Alamo Area Aquatic Association – 1,023
3. Nitro Swimming – 838.5
4. Texas Ford Aquatics – 596
5. Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club – 474

The future of Lakeside Aquatic Club (LAC) was on display at TAGS as the club’s 10-and-under girls 200 free relay established a new meet record at 2:05.13, erasing the previous standard of 2:05.62 from 2017.

The LAC quartet of Taylor Colquhoun (31.84), Yipeng Wang (31.93), Sydney Horne (30.49), and Angela Guo (30.87) combined for the 200 free relay victory. Colquhoun sliced almost two seconds off her previous-best 33.70 from last month with her impressive leadoff leg.

The LAC girls dominated TAGS this year with 2,258 points, more than twice the total of runner-up Alamo Area Aquatic Association (AAAA). They also got strong performances out of 11-year-old Josie Sun (2:50.73 200 breast, 1:18.75 100 breast) and 12-year-old Erica Wang (1:20.21 100 fly, 34.84 50 fly), among others.

Nitro Swimming 10-year-old Allison Sullivan threw down a personal-best 50 back time of 34.12, ranking 55th all-time in the 10-and-under age group for Americans. She dropped almost two tenths off her previous-best 34.31 from last month.

LAC 14-year-old Kennedi Southern secured four individual victories, including three in lifetime bests. She captured the 100 free crown in 57.45, dipping under her previous-best 57.54 from last July. Southern touched first in the 200 free at 2:06.94, crushing her best time from last July (2:08.56) by almost two seconds. She hit another personal best in the 100 back (1:04.98), taking almost three seconds off her previous-best 1:07.92 from last month. Southern also triumphed in the 50 free (26.60), within half a second of her personal-best 26.18 from April.

Rockwell Aquatic Center of Excellence 13-year-old Elisabeth Chiu won the 200 back (2:19.49) while also clocking lifetime bests during her runner-up finishes in the 200 free (2:07.22) and 200 IM (2:22.51). She dropped about half a second in the 200 free and more than a second in the 200 IM.