Brendan Burns Breaks YMCA Record in Only Individual Swim of the Meet

2018 YMCA LONG COURSE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Monday, July 30th-Friday, August 3rd, 2018
• Eppley Recreatin Center, University of Maryland
• 50m (LCM)
• Psych Sheet
• Meet Site/Results

The Cheshire (Connecticut) girls won their 2nd-straight YMCA National Title while the boys from the Red Bank Branch YMCA in New Jersey wrapped up both the boys title and the overall title (the latter by an overwhelming 342-points margin) on the final day of the 2018 YMCA Long Course National Championships.

For Cheshire, one of t heir stars of the meet wrapped up her individual racing in the 200 fly. 18-year old Mia Leko, a Dartmouth commit, won that race in 2:15.15. That win meant fighting off both Blue Ash’s Megan Glass (2:16.95), who had won the other two butterfly events at this meet, and Shannon Jelley, who won this race at last summer’s YMCA Nationals.

Cheshire then finished the meet with a 3:53.53 in the 400 free relay, including a 59.0 split from Leko and a 57.19 anchor split from 15-year old Sophie Murphy that led all swimmers in the field. Cheshire came away with 4 of the 5 relay wins at the meet, with the only exception being the 200 medley on Wednesday that Red Bank won in a new National Record.

The final day of the meet may have been the best yet. That includes the arrival of Brendan Burns from the Upper Main Line YMCA at the meet. Burns was the star of the spring national championship event, winning all 4 of his individual events and setting 3 YMCA National Records. After swimming at USA Swimming’s National Championships last week, he wasn’t here for the first part of this Monday-to-Friday meet, but showed up in time for his last entry of the meet, the 200 fly, and made his lone individual swim count.

Burns swam a 2:00.41 in the 200 fly, which knocked more than a second off his old record of 2:01.44, done at last year’s meet. It also won the race by more than 4 seconds. The time is just-off the 2:00.27 that Burns swam in the D-Final at Nationals last week, which is his lifetime best.

Even Burns’ arrival couldn’t steal the thunder from 15-year old Matt Fallon of the Somerset Valley YMCA in New Jersey. He added two more victories on Friday, to go with two from earlier in the meet, to close his racing. His first win on Friday came in the 200 IM, where he again overcame a front-half deficit (he was 2.8 seconds back of the leader after the backstroke leg) to win, albeit in a much narrower margin than his 400 IM. He swam 2:06.47, while runner-up Lukas Scheidl was 2nd in 2:06.85. Fallon won the 400 IM earlier in the meet by 5 seconds and broke the Meet Record.

He then finished his week in the 800 free, where he swam 8:20.92 (splitting 4:09.32/4:11.60). The result was a lifetime best for him by almost 6 seconds. Josh Cohen took 2nd in 8:26.01, while Jacob Greenwood placed 3rd in 8:26.02.

Other Day 5 Winners:

• Marie Schobel from Red Bank tied the YMCA National Record in the girls’ 50 back final. She swam 29.09, which matched the time done by Bailey Ginter to win at last year’s m eet.
• Justin Fleagle from Auglaize Mercer won the boys’ 50 back in 26.18.
• With no David Curtiss, winner of the 50 free, in the race, and Henry Schutte falling to the B-Final, 15-year old Jack Alexy was left to win the boys’ 100 free in 51.41. That takes half-a-second off his previous lifetime best in the race done at the PSS – Santa Clara. His best time coming into this summer was 54.2. Max Walther from Red Bank gets 2nd-place honors in the 100 free in 52.07, but Schutte actually had the 2nd-best time in 51.90.
• Abby Doss wrapped up a three-win meet of her own in the 200 IM, where she swam 2:19.91 to clear the field by more than a second. She previously won the 200 and 400 freestyles
• Olivia Schmelzer added another win for the teams from Ohio, picking up the girls’ 100 free title in 56.78. Murphy, mentioned above as having the fastest relay split on the evening, took 2nd in 57.84. Schmelzer didn’t swim on a 400 free relay.
• Somerset Hills won the boys’ 400 free relay in 3:30.80. They had a two-and-a-half second margin on the field, with Alexy leading his team in a 50.78 split on the 2nd leg. He was joined by Scheidl (52.87), Trent Russano (53.43), and Jonathan Hua (53.72). David Curtiss led-off for Hamilton Area YMCA in 51.45, with his team winning the B-Final, while Burns had the fastest split of the field with a 50.58 on a rolling-start for Upper Main Line.
• Catherine Buroker won the girls’ 800 free in 8:50.42, building a 7 second lead by the halfway mark of the race and holding it until the finish. That’s a bookend race for Buroker: she also won the first final, the 1500 free, of the meet.

Final Team Scores

Girls’ Top 5:

1. Cheshire – 444
2. Red Bank Branch – 440
3. ME Lyons Anderson – 323
4. Blue Ash – 273
5. York – 247

Boys’ Top 5:

1. Red Bank Branch – 431
2. Somerset Hills – 423.5
3. Greenwich – 256
4. Somerset Valley – 246
5. Fanwood Scotch Plains – 224

Combined Top 5:

1. Red Bank Branch – 871
2. Cheshire – 519
3. York – 462
4. Somerset Valley – 459.4
5. Somerset Hills – 430.5