Competitor Coach of the Month: Brent Arckey & Sarasota YMCA Staff

Competitor Coach of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based coach who has risen above the competition. As with any item of recognition, Competitor Coach of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one coach whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a coach who was clearly in the limelight, or one whose work fell through the cracks a bit more among other stories. If your favorite coach wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.

The Sarasota Sharks won this year’s combined YMCA Nationals points title by 25.5 over Greater Spartansburg, including some key age group swims.

The powerhouse were the girls, who scored 448 of the team’s 570 points, almost 90 more than any other girls team. Coach Brent Arckey and staff oversaw some huge time drops throughout the week:

17-year-old high school junior Emma Weyant led the way with 80 individual points. She had some massive time drops that vaulted her from an unranked NCAA recruit to #11 in the Class of 2020, as ranked this week. Weyant cut from 4:11 to 4:07.63 in the 400 IM, from 9:47 to 9:39.41 in the 1000 free and from 1:49.0 to 1:47.3 in the 200 free. Weyant won the 500 and 1000 frees plus the 200 and 400 IMs at YNats.

14-year-old Michaela Mattes also had a big meet, dropping from 16:43 to 16:21 in the 1650 free and picking up the win. 17-year-old Christina Cianciolo went from 16:45 to 16:38 in the mile and from 10:01 to 9:55 in the 1000. On the boys side, 18-year-old Alexander Gusev dropped from 9:27 to 9:15 in the 1000, 3:58 to 3:55 in the 400 IM, 4:32 to 4:29 in the 500 free and 1:54 to 1:51 in the 200 fly.

The Sharks also won two relays: the girls 400 free relay, led by a 50.00 leadoff from Weyant and a 49.8 split from 17-year-old Savannah Barr, plus the girls 800 free relay on a 1:47.3 leadoff from Weyant.

About Competitor Swim

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