The Aquatic Team of Mecklenburg (ATOM) in Charlotte, North Carolina has broken their 3rd National Age Group Record in a mixed relay in 2 days.
This time, it was the 17-18 400 mixed free relay that took down a record. The team of Garrett Boone, Lindsay Flynn, Liza Whitmire, and Jack Meehan combined for a time of 3:09.97. That team won the race by more than 8 seconds as part of a 1-2-3-4 ATOM finish in the event at the Frosty Invitational.
Splits:
- Lindsay Flynn (17) – 48.92
- Jack Meehan (17) – 46.14
- Garrett Boone (17) – 44.20
- Liza Whitmire (17) – 50.71
- Total Time – 3:09.97
The relay was led off by Flynn, whose split was within 4-tenths of a second of her personal best from Winter Juniors a month ago where she finished in 2nd place. Further showing off the team’s depth, Austin Lockhart split a 45.10 on the team’s B relay. He’s only 16, so with him the relay wouldn’t have been eligible for the 17-18 record, but they would have broken the 15-18 record.
USA Swimming has no previous recognized 17-18 record in this event, with the fastest time in the database being a 3:14.41 done by the Suburban Seahawks Club at the 2018 NCAP Invitational. USA Swimming has also not recognized a 15-18 record, but an NCAP relay of 15-16s at the 2019 NCAP Invitational swam 3:09.79, a couple of tenths better than ATOM’s relay swam on Sunday.
On Saturday, the same ATOM relay broke the previous 400 mixed medley relay record with a 3:30.21, and a separate ATOM 200 mixed free relay broke the 200 mixed free relay record.