Then 2014 Speedo Short Course Far Western Championships took over Morgan Hill, California over the weekend, with some big-name college commits racking up multiple wins in the 17-18 age group.
PASA teammates and Stanford signees Curtis Ogren and Andrew Liang combined for 6 events wins for the boys, while their future Cardinal teammate Ally Howe took four events for the girls. Leah Goldman of Peak Aquatics equaled her win total, though, netting four golds in a busy weekend for the Duke commit.
The 18-year-old Goldman won the 100 free, 100 back, 100 fly and 200 IM in a show of speed and versatility. That 100 free was her first win, coming on Friday, the meet’s second day. Goldman went 51.57 to win that race by a second before putting up the same winning margin with a 56.09 in the 100 fly later in that session. She added a 56.10 in the 100 back a day later, plus a 2:03.30 win in the 200 IM on the closing day.
Howe went head-to-head with Goldman in the 50 free, topping the field easily with a 22.95. Goldman went 24.08 to tie Dani Bergeson for second place. Earlier in that same session, Howe showed she’s far from a one-trick pony in the sprints, going 4:45.77 to win the 500 free by a wide margin.
One day prior, Howe won the 200 fly and 100 breast. The Palo Alto star went 1:57.49 for the big 200 fly win, then won a tight battle with Sarah Kaunitz in the 100 breast 1:04.64 to 1:04.78.
On the boys side, Howe’s pair of Palo Alto Stanford teammates and fellow Cardinal commits tore up the field, winning 3 apiece. Andrew Liang put up a big 1:46.88 to top Curtis Ogren in the 200 fly, just one of several head-to-head meetings between the two (Ogren went 1:49.08 for second). Liang also took the 100 back, going 48.86 to Ogren’s 50.71. But Ogren struck back in the 200 IM, going 1:48.61 to top Liang’s 1:49.15.
Liang also took the 50 free in 20.49 while Ogren won the 100 breast (55.11) and 500 free (4:26.60).
Some other notable swims: 16-year-0ld Christopher Miller of Lakeridge put up the fastest times of any age group in both distance events. He went 9:24.30 to win the 1000 and 15:36.71 for the 1650 victory. For the girls, 16-year-old Sandra Soe did the same thing in the 1000 free with her 9:51.66, the only swimmer under 10 minutes.
Lakeridge’s Rachel Matsumura won a share of three events over the first two days. She went 2:02.39 to take the 200 back, plus 4″25.48 for the 400 IM win (topping Goldman in the latter race). The 18-year-old also opened up the meet by tying Dani Bergeson for the 200 free title. Both girls went 1:51.64.
Cal signee Nick Silverthorn was a double-winner for the boys. He went 2:06.14 to run away with the 200 breast on day 1, then added a 4:06.12 win in the 400 IM the next day.
Goldman and Ogren were honored as high-point winners in the 17-18 category. Winners from the other age groups included:
- 15-16: Chloe Isleta who won the girls 400 IM, 100 back, and 200 IM along with Daichi Matsuda, who claimed the 100 and 200 flys.
- 13-14: Sophia Krivokapic-Zhou who won the girls 200 free, 200 IM, 200 back, 100 back and 400 IM and Hunter Hitchens, who took the 500 free.
- 11-12: Nicole Olvia, who won the 200 back, 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 back and Nicholas Burry, who won the 100 fly, 200 back, 50 back, 50 fly, 100 IM, and 400 IM.
- 10&under: Asia Minnes who claimed the 100 breast, 200 IM, 50 back, 500 free, 100 back, and 100 IM and Zach Le-Nguyen, who took home the 100 free, 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly and 50 free.
BOBO GIGI,
You are by far one of the better posters on this forum, with much respect I post this.
Without taking anything away from meets like The Tom Dolen Invite, the Western Great Lakes Open, The Far Western Open, Fort Lauderdale International Invitational or the UT open, the cut times for the NASA Showcase are much tougher, and it shows in the results,
http://www.aguaswim.com/meaqua/__doc__/Tom%20Dolan%20Standards.pdf
http://nasaswim.com/images/2014ShowcaseClassicQualifyingTimes.pdf
In order to qualify for the meet swimmers ages 9-11-13 must have AA times and ages 10-12-14 must have AAA times. If you have 1 qualifying time you can swim up to 3 bonus events. If you have 2 qualifying times… Read more »
NASA Showcase Classic in 10 days, Clearwater Florida. An very fast indoor poor, their will be no mistaking the yard times in this one. This is the fastest age group meet in the country. We look forward to the excellent coverage of this meet from SwimSwam and floridaswimnetwork,
The fastest?
Tom Dolan is pretty impressive too.
11-year-old Winn Aung was there too.
He swam pretty fast times.
1.49.43 in the 200 free
55.36 in the 100 fly
50.26 in the 100 free
23.43 in the 50 free
2.00.81 in the 200 fly! 😯
Except the 50 free, these are probably the fastest times ever swum by an 11-year-old boy in yards.
12-year-old Chloe Clark
51.78 in the 100 free. In the top 10 performers all-time.
23.90 in the 50 free. In the top 15 performers all-time.
15-year-old Constanze Moseley
49.15 in the 100 free
15-16 Girls: Constanze Moseley won the 50, 100 and 200 free by large margins, breaking the meet record in each. There’s that.
great swims, My daughter Mckenna enjoyed racing her in Finals
This was a SCY meet. Traditionally, Far Westerns for age group 17-18 has not been very competitive. You can check the results from previous years. Very few top swimmers show up for this event for that age group. I am fairly certain that some big teams don’t bother to taper their swimmers for this event.. The high school swim season is in full gear in California this time of the year, so many are also unable to attend this event.
By the way, I’ll take Benjamin Ho and Maxime Rooney over Daichi Matsuda. Daichi is a very good swimmer, but the former two swimmers are bigger and even better swimmers IMHO.
was this a meters pool? the times are slow. I know these swimmers have been much faster.
No, it was scy, also these times are way too fast for scm just so you know.
Weather can also be a factor. Chilly finals sessions, rain, wind, etc.
I promise, they were not tapered for this meet. It is not a big deal for most older swimmers since it is relatively close to CCS/NCS (mid-may meets), which requires a full taper.
It just turned out that it was cold and windy over this meet. On a couple of the days it rained and it was almost always windy during finals. Made it very hard to stay warm before races.