Cincinnati Marlins 13-14 Boys Break Both Medley Relay National Age Group Records at JO’s

Make it three National Age Group Records that have gone down at the 2014 Ohio Junior Olympics on the Miami University campus through three days of competition. In addition to the one previously reported by the Ohio State Swim Club 10 & under girls, the Cincinnati Marlins boys have also gone under both of the 13-14 medley relay records.

First, in Friday’s 200 medley relay, the team of Justin Grender, Jake Foster, Nicholas Perera, and Joshua McDonald combined for a 1:52.17, which beat the 2012 record held by the King Aquatic Club at 1:52.78.

Comparative Splits (Cincinnati Marlins/KING):

• Backstroke – Grender 28.75/Anderson 27.87
• Breaststroke – Foster 31.50/Hovis 32.18
• Butterfly – Perera 27.16/Kolykev 26.95
• Free McDonald 24.76/Johnson 25.78

Identically to the KING relay, this Cincinnati Marlins group was made up of three 14-year olds and one 13-year old on the breaststroke leg. For the Marlins, that’s Jake Foster, 0lder brother of age group star Carson Foster.

Then, on Saturday, the same group of Marlins broke the 13-14 National Age Group Record. For starters, they actually broke the Ohio LSC Record of 4:15.40 that had stood since 1977 (back when this team was called the Cincinnati Pepsi Marlins) by 11 seconds.

More importantly, they broke the National Age Group Record by over a second. The Marlins went 4:04.42 on Saturday, breaking the 2013 record of 4:05.87 held by the Aquazot Swim Team from Irvine, California.

Comparative splits here: (Cincinnati Marlins/Aquazot):

• Backstroke – Grender 1:01.80/Knoell 1:01.32
• Breaststroke – Foster 1:08.70/Lee 1:09.37
• Butterfly – Perera 59.94/Hanson 59.60
• Free McDonald 53.98/Messer 55.58

Once again, it was Josh McDonald who made a huge difference in this relay, splitting a 53.98 on the anchor leg. The 100 free finals are on Sunday afternoon, but in prelims, three of these guys (Grender, Perera, and McDonald) all earned top-8 spots behind Eddie Michael from Dublin, Ohio.

Full, live meet results available here.