Nathaniel Germonprez Leads Big Time Drops for 15-17 Boys at Fremont Cup

2020 FAST Fremont Cup

• November 7-8, 2020
• Dillon Family Aquatic Center, Fremont, Nebraska
• 25 Yard (SCY) pool
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2020 MW FAST Fremont Cup”

A group of clubs from the Midwestern Swimming LSC got together for the Fremont Cup in Fremont, Nebraska on Friday and Saturday. The highlight of the 4 session meet was a breakthrough by a group of teenage boys in the 100 yard fly, where the top 5 swimmers all swam lifetime bests.

Boys’ Top 5, 100 Yard Fly:

1. Nathaniel Germonprez (Unattached), 16 – 47.50 (3.50 second drop)
2. Luke Barr (Unattached), 17 – 47.85 (.11 second drop)
3. Tommy Palmer (Lincoln Select Swimming), 17 – 49.27 (3.95 second drop)
4. Jaden Popishill (GOAL), 16 – 51.76 (1.93 second drop)
5. Thomas Neil (Lincoln Select Swimming), 16 – 52.13 (.17 second drop)

That includes a three-and-a-half second improvement from Germonprez in the 100 fly. Germonprez, who is only a sophomore at Westside High School in Omaha, is the defending Nebraska State Champion in the 200 IM and was runner-up in the 100 free.

With traditional primary strokes of backstroke and the IMs, his 100 fly adds another big-time swim for him for colleges who might be starting to build their 2023 recruiting stack.

He also dropped almost 2 seconds to swim a best time and win the 100 free in 44.73.

That group of boys were among the highlights all season long.

The one swimmer who beat him at the Nebraska State Championship meet last season in the 100 free was Tommy Palmer of Lincoln Select Swimming. He dropped even more time to go 49.27 in the 100 fly.

Palmer also went a best time of 45.04 in the 100 free, but Germonprez’s bigger drop made him the event winner.

Barr, meanwhile, the runner-up in the 100 fly, also swam a lifetime best of 54.07 in the 100 breaststroke. That ranks him in the top 50 all-time among swimmers aged 17 and under.

Of the about 50 boys who have been 54.0 or better in the 100 breaststroke at this age, only 7 have been under 48 seconds in the 100 fly: Michael Andrew, Anthony Grimm, Zac Van Zandt, Tim Connery, Andrew Seliskar, MJ Mao, and Andrew Benson.

In other highlight boys races, 15-year old Kalvin Hahn of GOAL Swimming posted a best time of 2:02.02 to win the 200 breaststroke. That puts him just outside of the top 50 all-time among 15-16s in the event.

This was another race with a ton of lifetime bests. Specifically, the top 5 all were new best times, including 16-yea rold Kael Mlinek in 2:03.67.

Other Highlight Swims:

• 15-year old GOAL swimmer John Watson dropped almost 2 seconds to swim 1:53.31 in the 200 yard IM. He had 4 lifetime bests in 4 swims in the meet, including a 57.41 in the 100 breaststroke.
• Mia Snow swam a lifetime best of 51.42 in the 100 yard free, dropping a quarter-of-a-second from her previous lifetime best. For the 17-year old commit to Illinois State, that is the 8th-best swim in the LSC among 18 & unders during this quad. Notably, it also would have been 2nd among Illinois State women all of the 2019-2020 collegiate season.
• GOAL’s Kody Hollingsworth led the boys’ 100 backstroke in 49.43, which is a new best time for him by 7-tenths of a second. Hollingsworth, who is also a coach at GOAL, was scheduled to begin his college career at South Dakota last fall, but doesn’t appear on the school’s roster. 49.43 in the 100 back would have been the South Dakota school record.