Leah Shackley And Daniel Diehl Add A Victory Each On Day Four Of YMCA Nationals

2023 YMCA LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 25-29, 2023
• Greensboro, NC
• Greensboro Aquatic Center
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap
• Day 3 Recap

Today marked the fourth day of racing at the 2023 YMCA Long Course Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina. Today’s events included the 400 freestyle, 50 fly, 100 breast, 100 back, and 800 freestyle relay.

Leah Shackley of the Blair Regional YMCA closed out her meet with a final victory in the 100 backstroke. The NC State recruit clocked a 59.56 in finals, which is her 2nd-fastest performance ever in the event. She just missed her personal best time of 59.55, which she set back in May at Speedo Sectionals.

Fellow NC State commit Daniel Diehl from the Cumberland YMCA kept his winning streak alive with a 1st-place finish in the boy’s 100 back. Diehl stopped the clock at 53.91, which is faster than he was at U.S. Nationals but off his best time of 53.07 from the U.S. Open. Kenneth Barnicle grabbed 2nd in a best time of 55.86, which ranks him 25th all-time among 15-16 boys.

Winning the 400 freestyle for the girls was Katelyn Fitzgerald of the Western Branch YMCA Wahoos. The James Madison recruit had a fantastic race to post a best time of 4:23.44, which is nearly five seconds faster than she was at this meet a year ago. The boy’s race belonged to JC Gordon from the Lynchburg YMCA, who recorded a personal best time of 4:02.78 to win by nearly a second.

Fanwood Scotch Plains YMCA’s Clare Logan secured her 2nd win of the meet in the 50 fly. She got her hand on the wall 1st at 27.59, beating Alexa Fulton by just under a tenth (27.66). Garrett Gould from the Greater Somerset County YMCA handily won the boy’s 50 fly with a time of 24.28, clearing the field by over three-tenths of a second.

Drew Gaerthofner from the Oshkosh Community YMCA completed his sweep of all three breaststroke events with a 1st-place finish in the 100 breast. He stopped the clock at 1:02.77, which puts him under his previous best from June by nearly a second and a half.

The girl’s race went to South Carolina commit Delaney Franklin, who touched 1st at 1:11.28. Franklin, who represents the Greater Spartanburg YMCA, took nearly a second off her previous best time with her performance.

The final event of the day was the 800 freestyle relays, where the Greater Somerset County YMCA’s team of Colleen Bull (2:07.74), Anna Moesch (2:04.22), Erica Maltsev (2:08.22), and Emily Thompson (2:08.19) won in 8:28.37. Greater Somerset County went two-for-two, as their boy’s team of Gould (1:59.95), Riqui Iturbe Cosano (1:56.52), Derin Ozbas (1:57.00), and Barnicle (1:52.88) took the boy’s event in 7:46.35.