Presenting the Weekly Wonders for the weekend of June 29-July 1, 2018:
Gigi Hioki, 12, Kamehameha Swim Club (KSC-HI): 200m free (2:13.56) – Hioki dropped 3.5 seconds off her seed time to win the girls’ 11-12 200 free at the 70th Annual Keo Nakama Invitational. That makes her 11.3 seconds faster than she was at the same meet last year. She was also runner-up in the 100 back (with a PB) and 50 fly, and she took 5th in the 50 breast.
Parker Reynolds, 14, Santa Maria Swim Club (SMSC-CA): 200m free (2:04.89) – Reynolds took a 2.8-second bite out of his previous personal best to finish 4th in the boys’ 13&O 200 free at the SLO Firecracker Meet hosted by San Luis Obispo Swim Club. The previous weekend he had scored PBs in the 400/800/1500 free at Fran Crippen Memorial. Last June his best time in the 200 was 2:11.7.
Makaela Perea, 12, Bernco Barracuda Swimming (CUDA-NM): 200m back (2:35.00) – Also swimming at SLO Firecracker, Perea won the girls’ open 2018 by a margin of 8 seconds, coming within .07 of her PB, set at the Cactus Classic earlier in the month. Perea won the girls’ 11-12 100 free and 100 back, was runner-up in the 4 Loops Open Water and 200 IM, and was 3rd in the 50 free, 200 free and 50 back. She finished the meet with new times in the 100 back and 50 breast.
Clarissa Sabin, 15, Berkeley Aquatic Club (BAC-NJ): 100m breast (1:14.28) – Competing at the Coupe du Québec, Sabin was about 1 second off her PB but posted the #1 time in the U.S. for 18-and-under girls over the weekend, and was 1.4 seconds ahead of where she was last year at this time. She also swam the fastest 200 breaststroke of the weekend and snagged best times in the 100/200 fly and 200/400 IM.
Aidan Florio, 14, Ridgewood Y Dolphins (RYD-LE): 100m breast (1:13.31) – Florio time-trialed the 100 breast at the 50th Freedlander Swim Meet hosted by the Wooster Recreation Swim Club. While he was a half-second off his 2-week-old PB, he nonetheless swam 10.8 seconds faster than the 1:24.1 he went at this point in the season last year. Florio did pick up a new time in the 50 free, finishing 4th in the boys’ 13-14 event.
Chase Bolding, 18, Panama City Swim Team (PCST-SE): 200m breast (2:23.88) – Swimming at the ATAC Long Course Invitational, Bolding dropped .27 to win the boys’ open 200 breast with the weekend’s #3 time in the U.S. for 18-and-under boys. Last spring he went 2:38.6 in the 200 breast. Bolding also earned a new PB in the 200 IM. In addition to winning the 200 breast, he claimed gold in the 200 IM and bronze in the 100 fly.
Jean-Pierre Mouloudj, 15, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics (PASA-PC): 200m breast (2:32.57) – Swimming at the Super League Meet hosted by Clovis Swim Club and featuring swimmers from CLOV, DART, PASA, DOGS, and FSCT, Mouloudj took 3.4 seconds off a 3-week-old PB in the 200 breast to go 7.4 second faster than he’d been in the event last June. He also scored a best time in the 800 free.
Louie Fasani, 12, Wolverine Aquatics (WAC-SN): 100m fly (1:04.06) – Fasani took another 3/10 off a 3-week-old best time while winning the boys’ 11-12 100 fly at Woodland JOs or Bust. Last June his best time in the event was 1:20.11. He also won the 400 free with a new lifetime best. A week ago he got PBs in the 200 free, 50/100 back, and 50 fly at the RENO Age-Group Open.
Reminder: The Weekly Wonders column is a celebration of age-group swimming, where new champions are made every day. Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds. By association, it also celebrates their coaches and their teams. The Weekly Wonders column, therefore, amounts to a pat on the back for a job well done, and hopefully encourages swimmers of all levels to continue to reach from within to get to that next level.
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Jean-Pierre Mouloudj. It sounds French. 🙂
A 14 year old boy swim 1:13 for 100breast doesn’t sound very impressive. A 15 year old boy swim 200 breast 2:32 doesn’t sound that impressive either
As per the footnote above:
“Reminder…Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds.”