Heilman Breaks Another LSC Record in a Secondary Event on Saturday at Virginia Champs

2023 VIRGINIA SWIMMING SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 2-5, 2023
• Collegiate School Aquatic Center, Richmond, VA
• SCY (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheet
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2023 VSI SC Senior Champs”

More off-event personal bests from Thomas Heilman and a lot of multi-event champions highlighted the 3rd day of action at the 2023 Virginia Swimming Senior Championships on Saturday.

Heilman, after winning and setting best times in the 100 breast and 400 IM on Friday, did the same in the 200 breaststroke and 100 backstroke on Saturday.

First, in the 200 breaststroke, he swam 1:57.80 to win by almost five seconds. That just-missed the Meet Record, but it took more than two seconds off the old Virginia Swimming LSC Record of 1:59.95 that was set by Patrick Lacore in 2017. Heilman’s 100 breaststroke on Friday broke Lacore’s LSC Record too, done at that same meet.

Heilman’s previous best time in the 200 breast was 2:07.96, so this was a 10 second drop. He now ranks 34th all-time in the 15-16 age group in that event, and holds 8 short course yards LSC Records in the 15-16 age group alone.

Heilman rolled off that into the 100 backstroke, where he posted a 47.91 to undercut his previous best of 49.36 from March 2022. He’ll swim his most-primary event of the meet on Sunday, the 100 free, which so far includes a personal best of 42.91 in prelims.

Absent from that 100 backstroke was the LSC Record holder Kyle Peck from the Rappahannock Stingrays. Peck has been more focused on butterfly races this week, completing a sweep with a win in the 200 on Saturday.

Peck swam 1:46.57, which between prelims and finals knocked more than two seconds off his personal best. Peck, a junior, is committed to Texas next season.

Heilman’s Cavalier Aquatics teammate David King grabbed his 3rd individual win of the meet so far, and 4th overall, in the 500 free. He swam 4:21.24. That’s two seconds better than he was at Winter Juniors – East in the fall and adds to earlier wins in the mile (15:02.76), 200 free (1:36.63), and 800 free relay (6:36.90).

Girls’ racing saw a number of swimmers pick up their second or third  individual victories on Saturday too. 18-year-old Wyllo Hanson from the Coast Guard Blue Dolphins won the 200 yard fly in 1:59.86, about half-a-second better than 14-year-old Emerson Callis (2:00.33).

For Hanson, an Auburn commit, that is a best time by 1.7 seconds and moves her within two-tenths of SEC Championship scoring territory in a race where Auburn only had one scorer last season – Avery Bargeron picked up 1 point for 24th place.

Hanson also won the 200 free on Saturday (1:47.14).

NOVA 15-year-old Elle Scott picked up her 3rd individual win on Saturday, winning the 200 breaststroke in 2:10.04. That’s her biggest drop of her three wins this weekend, knocking 2.77 seconds off her previous best from Winter Juniors – East.

She also won the 100 breast (1:00.48 – .4 drop) and 100 fly (53.41 – .85 drop) on Friday, and also swam the leadoff leg of the winning 800 free relay (splitting 1:47.82 – a 2.5 second drop).

Other Day 3 Winners & Notables

• Lynchburg’s Brendan Whitfield won the boys’ 50 free in 20.28. That time is about half-a-second better than his 3rd-place finish from last year. Whitfield won the 100 free and was 2nd to Heilman in the 50 free at the Virginia High School Class 4 State Championships two weeks ago, and is racing this weekend sandwiched between that meet at the YMCA Short Course National Championship, which are usually two taper meets for him.
• 27-year-old Kevin Mastracci was 2nd in that race in 20.64. Mastracci was a former high school swimmer in Virginia whose record doesn’t show any swims between his last high school state championship in 2014 and his return to competition in 2021. In his late 20s, he’s now going lifetime bests again – this 50 free was about a tenth slower than his swim from this meet last year. He currently works in his day job as an information security & risk engineer at Cardinal Health.
• Poseidon’s Lexi Stephens rolled off her Virginia big high schools title in the 100 back two weeks ago to drop another second, crush her lifetime best, and add an LSC championship to her resume. Stephens, a junior committed to Alabama, has had a huge breakthrough this season. She entered the year with a lifetime best of 53.94, and dropped that all the way to a 52.48 on Saturday. She’s been under her previous lifetime best in six swims this season with the NCSA Championships still to come. Both she and Ali Pfaff, the runner-up, were under the old Meet Record of 52.87 set by Zoe Dixon in 2022.
• Ali Pfaff was 2nd behind Stephens in that 100 back in 52.62, which knocks two-tenths of a second off her lifetime best, and also won the 50 free in 22.72, another lifetime best. Morgan Thomas, a Minnesota commit, was 2nd in 22.85, while Hanson was 3rd in 23.13.
• NOVA’s Amanda Barnard won the girls’ 500 free in 4:46.12. She and runner-up Ava Muzzy were pretty locked-up through the first half of this race, but Barnard started to pull away late, splitting an impressive 56.89 over the final 100 yards to lock away victory. She had runner-up finishes in the mile, 200 free, and 400 IM earlier in the meet, but finally got her win in the 500 free. That’s an 11-second drop from her 6th place time at this meet last year.