Liam Custer Drops 5 Seconds, Swims Top 15-16 400 IM in the Country This Season

SYS Summer Social Distance

• July 24-26, 2020
• Selby Aquatic Center, Sarasota, Florida
• SCY (25y) pool, Prelims/Finals
• Results on Meet Mobile: “SYS Summer Social Distance”

While intrasquad time trials have begun to spring up across the country, most of those have been short fragmented timed-finals races.

The Sarasota Sharks, however, has cracked the ice on prelims/finals competition, beginning Friday morning at the Selby Aquatic Center.

Rising high school junior Liam Custer isn’t waiting for the evening finals to make his mark on the meet, however. Already a highly-ranked recruit as a distance freestyler, 200-yard stroke swimmer, and IMer, Custer further lifted his status on Friday morning by dropping massive new best times in both the 200 free and 400 IM to bookend the session.

In his first swim of the morning, the 200 free, he swam 1:37.43. That took over 5 seconds off his previous lifetime best of 1:43.87 that was done in February of 2019.

At the back-end of the session, he took another huge bite out of his best time in the 400 IM. On March 13, in his last swim before meets began shutting down for the coronavirus pandemic, he swam a new best time of 3:54.10 in the 400 IM. On Friday, he built off that momentum into a 3:48.81 to qualify first in the event – dropping over 5 seconds again.

Those times tie him as the 9th-best 200 yard freestyler so far this season nationally among 15-16s, and the top 400 IM’er in the age group this season.

He was not alone in dropping time in Friday’s prelims session as swimmers topped their seed times frequently in the meet’s first session.

US National Teamer and 2019 US National Champion Emma Weyant also very-nearly swam a new lifetime best in the 200 free. She swam 1:47.53 in prelims, which is .19 seconds away from her best time in that event.

The 18-year old Virginia commit also swam a 4:10.00 in the 400 IM, her best event, which misses her best time by about two-and-a-half seconds. So far in her career, Weyant’s long course times have far out-raced her yards times, so progress in the short course pool will be a welcome sight for her future collegiate coaches.

Other Notable Prelims Swims:

• 14-year old Gracie Weyant, Emma’s younger sister, led the field in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.25.
• 16-year old Max Eckerman swam a new best time of 1:00.70 to top the boys’ 100 breaststroke field, just ahead of teammate Jackson Harlan, who swam 1:01.07.
• Isabel Traba led a trio of 56s in the girls’ 100 fly prelims, clocking a 56.15, 18-year old Miami commit Savannah Barr touched 2nd in 56.38, while 14-year old Addie Sauickie touched 3rd in 56.78.
• Felipe Baffico led the field in the boys’ 100 yard fly, swimming 51.54 in prelims.
• University of Alabama rising junior Nico Hernandez-Tome, who is back home training for the summer, was 2nd to Baffico in that 100 fly in 52.42. That’s his first best time in that event since he was 14, when he swam 57.66, though as primarily a distance freestyler, he doesn’t swim the race often.