We’re back for Season 6 of the Weekly Wonders of Age Group Swimming. Here are our favorite swims from the first 3 weekends of September 2018:
Rob Carpenter, 13, Merced Skimmers Swim Team (MERC-CC): 50 free (23.80) – Carpenter opened the 2018-19 short course season with his 3rd-best 50 free ever at the Hanford Swim Club-hosted Fall Classic Short Course Meet at Tulare Western High School. It was his best non-championship season performance and marked a 1.5-second improvement year-over-year; last September he swam 25.33 in the 50. Carpenter left the meet with a PB in the 100 back, as well.
Stephen Jones, 14, Savannah Swim Team (SST-GA): 50y free (22.97) – Jones broke the 23-second mark for the first time at the Bolles School Sharks TYR Season Opener. He dropped .63 and was 1.2 seconds faster than he’d been last September. Jones won the boys’ 13&O 200 fly, finished 2nd in the 50 free and touched 3rd in the 100 free.
Nathaniel Macapagal, 16, South San Francisco Aquatics (SSF-PC): 50y free (21.97) – Swimming at the South San Francisco Aquatic Club C/B/A+ meet, Macapagal clocked his best 50 free outside of high school season, and his 4th-best over, to log the 8th-fastest 50 free in the U.S. for 18-and-under boys thus far in September. He was 8/10 ahead of his pace from last September. He finished the weekend with PBs in the 200 free and 100 back. He won the boys’ 13&O 50/100 free and 100 back and was top-4 in the 200 free, 100 fly, and 200 IM.
Olivia Bishop, 17, YMCA Westside Silver Fins (YWSF-AZ): 100y free (52.55) – At the Desert Quad Series #1 – YWSF vs. SAC, Bishop dropped 0.26 from her previous PB to log the #1 100 free time in country for 18-and-under girls for the first 3 weekends of September. She is 1.5 seconds ahead of last year’s pace, having gone 54.00 in November 2017. All told, Bishop improved her lifetime bests in the 50/100/500 free, 100 back, 100 breast, and 200 IM at the meet.
Kaitlyn Nguyen, 11, OC Riptide Aquatics (RIPT-CA): 100y breast (1:11.64) – Nguyen crushed her old PB, and all her competitors, in the 100 breast at the EAST Back-to-School BRW Short Course Meet. She dropped 5.6 seconds in the event for a year-over-year improvement of 24 seconds. She also won the 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, and 100 IM and was runner-up in the 50/100 free and 50 back. She finished the meet with PBs in all 8 events.
Jack Fulham, 12, Hawaii Swimming Club (HSC-HI): 100y breast (1:09.18) – Competing at the Oahu Age Group Meet, Fulham won the boys’ 11-12 100 breast with a PB by 2/10, making for a total improvement of 6.9 seconds since February 2018. He also won the 200 breast and 200 IM and was runner-up in the 100 fly. He picked up new PBs in all the but the IM. The previous week he had scored new times in the 50s of each stroke plus the 100 IM at the Oahu All-Isle Pentathlon.
Savannah Branon, 11, Bolles School Sharks (BSS-FL): 200y breast (2:39.25) – Swimming at the BSS TYR Season Opener, Branon swam her 1st-ever 200 breast and won the girls 11-12 event by 10 seconds. She also won the 50 breast and placed 3rd in the 50 fly and 100 IM. Branon took home new times in the 200 breast, 50 fly, and 100 IM.
Arrianne Wilson, 14, Austin Trinity Aquatic Club (ATAC-ST): 100y fly (57.29) – Swimming unattached at the UIL Dragon Invite, Willson popped a best-by-9/10-second 57.29 in the 100 fly to post the #4 swim in the country for 18-and-under girls in the first 3 weekends of September. She is 4 seconds ahead of where she was in September 2017 (1:01.26).
Chloe Brede, 14, Seahawks Swim Club (SEA-OZ): 200y fly (2:08.33) – Brede dropped 3.2 seconds in the 200 fly at the Seahawks Dive Back In Meet, winning the girls’ 13-14 event by more than 21 seconds and improving 6.3 seconds year-over-year. She also won the 50 free, 100 back, 200 back, 200 breast, 50 fly (with a PB), and 100 fly.
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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