A quartet of Mexican National Records were broken on the first night of the 2014 National Championships in Veracruz; further, four total swimmers booked tickets to the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games (CACG). The event is a multi-sport spectacular, with 36 different disciplines and all and 31 represented countries, running from November 14th-30th.
That meet will be Mexico’s primary focus for the season as they try to impress their local fans; it will be back in the same pool in Veracruz. It is Cuba who historically has won the most medals at this event, but in 2010 Mexico topped the table. They’ll be apt to do so again in 2014 in front of a home crowd.
The four swimmers already inscribed are all based out of the United States: Fernanda Gonzalez, Daniel Ramirez, Melissa Rodriguez, and Long Gutierrez.
The two senior national records, which also come with tickets onto the team, began with Maria Fernanda Gonzalez, who swam a 28.76 to win the women’s 50 backstroke. The swim just slipped under her own personal best of 28.83 done at this same meet in 2013.
In the very next event, the men’s 100 free, Daniel Ramirez from the state of Sonora won the men’s 100 free in 50.14. That broke the National Record of 50.66 that was set in 2012 by Alejandro Escudero. Escudero took 2nd in this race in 50.97, unable to match his personal best.
Besides the senior mark, the national 17-18 record was also broken in the men’s 100 free. Lorenzo Elia Loria swam a 51.19 to win his category and take down a National Age Group Record.
The 3rd record of the day actually came in prelims, where Melissa Rodriguez swam a 1:09.95 in the women’s 100 breaststroke. The junior-to-be at Penn State slipped back to a 1:10.73 in finals, but still walked away with both the title and the record.
In the process, she beat out another American-based swimmer, Texas A&M post-grad Erica Dittmer, who was a 1:11.19. Dittmer was the former National Record holder.
The fourth qualifier is University of California, Berkeley swimmer Long Gutierrez. The versatile swimmer was 3rd in the 100 free and also finished first in the 200 fly, swimming a 2:01.43. He beat out former Texas A&M standout Israel Duran (2:01.74) to win the event and book his ticket.
This meet will run through Saturday, July 19th.
Way to go, Long! Go Bears!
Susana Escobar from the university of Texas had a good swim yesterday as well.