Huske Rattles 17-18 NAGs in 50 Free and 100 Fly on Day 1 of PV Winter Champs

2020 Potomac Valley 18&U Winter Championships

• December 3-December 6, 2020
• Claude Moore Recreation Center, Sterling, VA
• SCY
• Results on Meet Mobile as “2020 PV 18&U Winter Championships”
• Live results

This week kicks off the period where times will count for what will be a very different Winter Junior Championships this year, as all times by 18&U swimmers at any sanctioned, approved, or observed meet between December 1st and 13th will count towards the championship rankings, assuming that the swimmers already had the necessary time standard in that event.

The Potomac Valley LSC is a hotbed of fast swimming, and it was not surpising at all to see some scorching times on the first day of its 18&U Championships today.

Sure enough, 17 year-old Torri Huske of the Arlington Aquatic Club rattled two different 17-18 National Age Group records tonight. First, she won the 50 free in 21.43, touching well over a second ahead of anyone else in the field. That’s a new personal best for her by exactly 0.40s, and also moves her up to #2 all-time in the age group. She’s now only 0.11s away from the record of 21.32, set by Simone Manuel back in 2015. Huske moved up from #9, jumping over a veritable “who’s who” of top notch sprinters, including Abbey Weitzeil, the currently the fastest woman ever in the 50 free at 20.90, and who was 21.49 at 18.

Later in the session, Huske, who’s committed to Stanford, dove back in for the 100 fly. This time she won by over three seconds, touching in 50.29. One again, that rattled the NAG and moves her to #2 all-time in the age group. The record currently belongs to Olivia Bray, who went 50.19 in 2019. Huske had sat at 4th in the all-time age group rankings with a 50.49, and tonight she moved ahead of Kate Douglass (50.30) and Regan Smith (50.45).

In the 200 breast, 15 year-old Eleanor Sun of Nation’s Capital got her hand on the wall first with a time of 2:16.82, her 3rd-fastest time ever and not too far off of her lifetime best of 2:16.17 from March. NCAP teammate Paige McKenna won the 1650 in 16:17.37, her 5th-fastest time ever. McKenna, who’s committed to Wisconsin, holds a lifetime best of 15:48.07 from March of 2019, when she was 15.

We didn’t see anything like Huske’s swims on the men’s side, but it was certainly wasn’t bereft of fast swimming. Anthony Grimm of the Mason Makos, the #2 recruit in this senior class, won the 50 free in 19.99, his 4th time under 20 seconds. He was the only boy under 20.0.

Just like Huske, Grimm swam the 100 fly later in the session, but this time he had to duel it out with NCAP’s Landon Gentry, who recently committed to Virginia Tech. Grimm is known for a speedster, and he had the lead at the 50, although Gentry was just behind, 21.46 to 21.64. Gentry outsplit Grimm on the back half, though, 24.77 to 25.10, and won 46.41 to 46.56. Gentry’s best time coming into today was a 48.44 before going 46.82 in prelims, and in the process he broke a PVS 15-16 age group record previously belonging to Grimm.

While the 100 fly was close, the 200 breast was arguably even wilder. Toby Barnett of RMSC came home with splits of 30.9/30.6 over the last 100 to surge past teammate Alvin Kimwon and Machine’s Tyler Lentine. Barnett touched in 2:00.56, just barely ahead of Kimwon (2:00.60) and Lentine (2:00.64). All three men set new personal bests today, as Barnett had set a new personal best of 2:00.38 this morning. The fastest overall time of the day, however, belonged to NCAP’s Jakob Frick, who knocked nearly five seconds off of personal best time to go 1:59.08, before taking 4th tonight in 2:01.22

In this morning’s distance session RMSC’s Sean Santos won the 100 free in 9:16.70, with the Fish’s Sam O’Brien was the only other man under 9:20 at 9:19.20, both men setting new lifetime bests.