Tupelo Top TYR Invitational
- March 4-8, 2021
- Tupelo, MS
- Short course yards (25y)
- Results (available on Meet Mobile)
Shock Wave Aquatics of Tupelo, Mississippi hosted an invitational meet this past weekend that attracted a host of talent from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Jacques Rathle of Crawfish Aquatics, who is headed to Auburn in the fall, went six for six in events, winning the 200 free, the 400 IM, the 200 breast, the 500 free, the 100 free, and the 200 IM.
Rathle’s top swim came in the 200 breast as he broke the 2:00 barrier for the first time, swimming a 1:58.74. Rathle would set four additional lifetime best swims on the weekend as he went 3:49.33 in the 400 IM (new best by .4 seconds), 1:36.86 in the 200 free (best by 1.9 seconds), 44.92 in the 100 free (best by .3 seconds), and 4:27.19 in the 500 free (best by .99 seconds).
Avery Henke, a 15-year old teammate of Rathle at Crawfish, won the 100 breast as he tied his best time of 54.96. According to the USA Swimming database, Henke ranks as the 11th fastest 15-16 year old and the 2nd fastest 15 year old this year in the 100 breast. All time Henke ranks as the 14th fastest 15 year old and the 66th in the 15-16 age group for this event.
Derek Zhang of Nu Wave Swim Club, who has committed to Pitt for the fall of 2022 won two events at the meet. Zhan broke 49 seconds for the first time in both the 100 backstroke (48.84) and the 100 butterfly (48.86).
Shock Wave’s Julia Dennis won both the 50 and 100 freestyle events in dominant fashion. Just a week ago, Dennis broke the 23 second barrier as she swam a 22.92 at the Mississippi Short Course State meet. This weekend, she dropped another 0.3 seconds to go 22.62 and win by over a second. This time ranks Dennis 5th this year among 16-year olds and 53rd all time.
Having swum a 50.65 at the state meet a week ago, Dennis was chasing the 50-second barrier. While that barrier will have to wait, she dropped over half a second, finishing in 50.14 and over a second ahead of the next fastest swimmer.
12-year old Sasha Slauson of Hurricane Swim Club has shown significant progress in the 200 butterfly. Two years ago as a ten year old she was at 2:42.46 in this event. In January of 2020, she dropped over 15 seconds to 2:26.81. At the end of January of this year, she cut her time by another 12 seconds to 2:14.56. This past weekend, she dropped nearly another four seconds as she clocked in at 2:10.82. This puts Slauson as the 7th fastest 12-year old this season in the 200 fly.
Other notable swims
- Chris Richardson of Crawfish dropped nearly two seconds in the 200 backstroke, winning in 1:46.95
- 2020 Delta State grad Matey Rezashki swam a 54.88 in the 100 breaststroke and 2:00.71 in the 200 breast. Rezashki represents Delta Swim Club
- TCU Commit Rylee Moore of Crawfish won the 100 back in 54.64, just off her best of 54.30
- 15-year old Marie Landreneau of City of Lafayette Aquatics won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.32. She also won the 200 breast in 2:19.96