At the 2014 Speedo Sectionals Championship at the IUPUI Natatorium, the 15-16 girls of the Carmel Swim Club torched the National Age Group Record in the 400 meter freestyle relay. The team of Veronica Burchill, Kendall Smith, Claire Adams, and Amy Bilquist combined for a 3:48.28. That broke the 3:51.39 done by the Aquajets Swim Team in 2013 by more than three seconds – the old record was 3:51.39. It also broke the 2009 Meet Record that was set by a group of collegians from the University of Michigan by roughly the same amount.
Splits:
1 Carmel Swim Club-IN ‘A’ 3:50.75 3:48.28*NAT 52
1) Burchill, Veronica K 16 2) Smith, Kendall T 16
3) Adams, Claire E 15 4) Bilquist, Amy M 16
28.14 57.94 (57.94)
1:25.62 (27.68) 1:55.69 (57.75)
2:22.20 (26.51) 2:51.63 (55.94)
3:18.64 (27.01) 3:48.28 (56.65)
That winning time was a part of a 1-3 finish for the Carmel Girls, and they were led by a 55.94 split (on a rolling start) from Adams – the youngest member of the relay. Adams was the second-youngest swimmer at the 2012 Olympic Trials, and her progression hasn’t slowed down one bit since.
The Colorado Stars’ team of Jordan Mattern, Caroline Piehl, Kelly Naze, and Missy Franklin still hold the 15-18 record in 3:45.50.
Individually, Bilquist added wins in the 50 (25.65) and 100 (55.59) freestyles, while she and Adams took 2nd-and-3rd behind Byron Center’s Taylor Garcia (1:01.67) in the 100 back. Garcia is one of the star swimmers that transferred from Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics in Holland, Michigan to Byron Center 30 miles east when coach Don Kimble made the move last year.
Congrats to these girls! On a another note, is anyone else concerned with the amount of touch pad errors lately? Am I the only one starting to think maybe some of these times we have seen aren’t completely accurate? How can we give swimmers credit for fast relay splits given the amount of errors there have been?! Anyone?
The errors are often not lead off splits where a swimmer truly gets “credit” for having swum the time. The other splits may seem fast but are easily compared to a swimmers flat start time for a point of reference.As for the overall times there is a time verification process at the meet. Just because it comes up on the board doesn’t mean that it is accurate until officials verify it. Erin Earley’s splits were very obviously off for the last 100 taking nothing away from her amazing swim. 210 -200 back for a 14 year old. Wow.
Congratulations to the 14 year old swimmer Erin Earley. She won high point for the meet!
They were having difficulties with the pads all weekend.
At the same meet, impressive 200 back for 14-year-old Erin Earley.
Her seed time was 2.14.23.
She swam 2.10.95 in final with amazing splits.
33.02/31.34/38.92!/27.67! 😯
Definitely a pad error haha…can’t see a 14 year old girl going 27 in a 50 lcm back at all, let alone at the end of a 200
Or doing a split like that for the 100 breast…
You’re right.
I’m embarrassed! 😳
I forgot that the 50 back world record was 27.06! 😆
I forgot that Missy finishes in 30/31! 😆
I must slowly accustom again to long course.
But 2.10.95 is correct and it’s still an impressive swim for a 14-year-old girl.