2021 Speedo Central Zone Sectionals – Section 1
- July 8-11, 2021
- RecPlex, Pleasant Prairie, WI
- Hosted by Madison Aquatic Club
- LCM Format (50m)
- Meet Site
- Meet Packet
- Full Results
The first round of the 2021 Speedo Sectionals Series kicked off last weekend throughout many U.S. sites, including at the RecPlex in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin for Section 1 of the Central Zone Sectionals, featuring teams from Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Highlighting the four-day affair were triple event winners Barrington 17-year-old Griffin O’Leary and Wisconsin Badger Jack Leuthold alongside double-event winners 17-year-old Olivia Dorshorst of Barrington and 15-year-old Lucy Thomas of Elmbrook.
O’Leary, committed to swim for USC in fall 2022. O’Leary’s first win was in the 200 fly, swimming exactly a second over his 2019 lifetime best at 2:04.04. He then flipped over to sweep the 100 back and 200 back, registering times of 56.58 and 2:04.51. His 100 back time was just a half second off of his 56.09 lifetime best from the 2020 U.S. Open, which was a Wave I Trials cut. There, he placed 26th overall at 26.66. Meanwhile, his top 200 back time rests at 2:03.20 from this past March.
The Barrington 17-year-old was on his way to winning a fourth event in the 100 fly until Peoria Area 16-year-old Joshua Noll successfully toppled fly/back specialist. Noll won the 100 fly at 56.17, six one-hundredth ahead of O’Leary (56.23). Noll’s time was nearly a full second under his previous personal best of 56.95.
Leuthold, a rising junior for the Wisconsin Badgers, went 3-for-3 personal bests in all of his individual wins. Leuthold first won the 800 free at 8:16.25, chomping five seconds off his 2019 lifetime best of 8:21.59. Into the 400 free, Leuthold shaved 0.64s from his May personal best to go 4:02.04. His biggest drop came in the 1500 free, where he sliced 13.85 seconds off his 2019 personal best to hit 15:38.84, which would be a Wave I Trials cut.
Fellow Wisconsin Badger Andrew Benson swept the men’s sprint events, hitting 23.05/51.05 respectively in the 50/100 free. More Badgers that took event wins in Pleasant Prairie include Canadian Elizabeth Moore in the women’s 200 breast (2:31.54), Graham Miotke in the men’s 400 IM (4:32.44), and Cal Dunn in the women’s 200 IM (2:20.23).
Another Barrington 17-year-old, Olivia Dorshorst, was a dominant presence in the distance events, winning close races in the 400 free (4:22.09) and 800 free (8:55.67), both lifetime bests. Touching 0.45s behind Dorshorst in the 400 free was FMC Aquatic 16-year-old Piper Wood Prince at 4:22.54. Later on in the 1500 free, Wood Prince would out-swim Dorshorst by 10 seconds for the win 17:04.12 to 17:14.23. In the 800 free, Barrington teammate Emily Bucaro took a last-minute charge to finish over a second behind Dorshorst at 8:56.90.
Lucy Thomas opened and closed her long meet with event wins in the 100 breast (1:09.86) and 50 free (26.21), where she owns respective lifetime bests of 1:09.04 and 26.00. In the 50 free, Elmbrook teammates Abby Wanezek (26.39) and Maggie Wanezek (26.86) rounded out the top three finishers.
A. Wanezek, committed to Wisconsin’s class of 2026, won the 100 free at 57.35, touching two-tenths ahead of Thomas (57.55) and FMC Aquatic 18-year-old Kate Morris (57.62). M. Wanezek also walked away with an individual win in the 200 back, stopping the clock at 2:14.46. Thomas also participated in the 200 free, where she placed second with a personal best of 2:05.43.
Winning the women’s 200 free was FMC’s Morris at 2:04.72, well off her 2019 lifetime best of 2:02.18. Morris is a member of UVA’s incoming freshman class this fall and is set to swim along the likes of Abby Kapeller, Caroline Pennington, Ella Bathurst, Gretchen Walsh, Reilly Tiltmann, and Athena Vanyo.
More Event Winners:
- Women’s 200 Fly: Greta Pelzek (New Trier), 2:16.93
- Men’s 200 Breast: Maxwell Boehnlein (Green Bay), 2:20.21
- Women’s 100 Back: Jessica Geriane (Academy Bullets), 1:03.24
- Men’s 200 Free: Trent Frandson (FMC Aquatic), 1:54.83
- Men’s 100 Breast: Maxwell Boehnlein (Green Bay), 1:04.32
- Women’s 400 IM: Olivia Swalley (Central Iowa), 4:56.41
- Women’s 100 Fly: Greta Pelzek (New Trier), 1:01.16
- Men’s 200 IM: Colin Zhang (Glenbrook), 2:07.29