High School/Age Group Roundup: 8/31/2011-9/7/2011: Florida HS Swimming Kicks Off, Pacific Swimming Invite Heats up West Coast

This is the 2nd edition of our new high school/age group roundup feature that we are experimenting with here on The Swimmers Circle. In this feature, we will peak around the country to scope out swimmers who have done great things at the local level, even if they haven’t made the national headlines. Things like huge best times, school records, local LSC records, time standards, or whatever else we feel is noteworthy. The methodologies are going to be a bit random, but hopefully we’ll hit a few interesting stories, and down the road, when you’re reading about the recruiting class of 2018, you might think to yourself “where have I heard that name before?”

We also invite all of our readers to write about their own swimmers, their kids, or their local team and point out any other great swims, so that this becomes a weekly memorandum for all of the great swimming that goes on across our country every week.

First, we’ll hit up some Florida high school swimming, specifically in the Tampa area. On the last day of August, Mitchell High School senior Mazie Siddens tore up the school’s record book in the team’s first meet of the season after a summer where she put some serious work in on her distance freestyles. She put up a 2:02.31 in the 200 free to crush a 6-year old school record by nearly 10 seconds, and that’s just meet one. She also cut better than 6 seconds off of her own school record in the 500 free with a 5:29.85. This is all without having swum her best event, the 100 fly, where she could be a top-6 finisher at the Florida High School State Championships.

In age group action, Pacific Swimming was host to the first “big-time” age group meet of the year at the Morgan Hill Age Group Open. In attendance at this meet were some of the most recognizable clubs in the country, including Santa Clara Swim Club, the Pleasanton Seahawks, Palo Alto, and Aquazot. The star of the show was Vivian Wang of the Sunnyvale Swim Club. Taking advantage of what is likely her last meet as a 10-year old, Wang broke 3 Pacific Swimming Age Group Records en route to 8 victories and a runner-up finish. In addition to the long course records that she broke over the summer, she now has seven 10 & under records in the LSC. (Incidentally, she was within a tenth of the NAG Record in the 50 back over the summer, and within two-tenths of Lia Neal’s National 50 free record).

 Wang’s records came in at 26.16 in the 50 free, 33.27 in the 50 breast, and in clearing the LSC’s oldest short course record, she swam a 28.31 to take down the 50 fly record held by Marianne Nieto from 1983. Lest the time has flown by, that stands as a 28-year old record. The only swimmer to top Wang throughout the whole meet was 12-year old Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou in the 500 free, which was swum as an open race. Krivokapic-Zhou took the race in a time of 5:30.44, which is very quick considering most of these teams didn’t even begin practice until after the meet was over.

Also broken in the meet was the Pacific Swimming 8 & under 25 free record by Krystal Xiao-Rao of the Rossi Swim Team in 13.25 (a three-second margin of victory). For those unfamiliar with 25-yard times, a 13.25 is unbelievably fast for a 10-year old, let alone an 8-year old like Xiao-Rao.

The highlight of that meet on the boys side had to have been 14-year old Anthony Yeung’s 53.93 to win the 13-18 100 fly. For Yeung, who just turned 14 two months ago, that’s a big career-best time to kick the season off, and puts him in position to be top-5 in the country in his age group in this event.

Let us know which of your swimmers had great swims below!

 Full results from this meet can be found here.