Ryan Vipavetz Breaks NCSA Meet Record In 200 Fly At Day 3 Finals

2018 NCSA SUMMER SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 31 – August 4, 2018
• IUPUI Natatorium
• Indianapolis, IN
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheet
• Day 3 Finals Results

17-year-old Ryan Vipavetz of Rockville Montgomery reset his 200 fly personal best twice on day 3 of the NCSA Summer Championships, with his swim in the final also breaking the four-year-old meet record.

After hitting 2:00.88 in prelims, lowering his previous best of 2:01.51, Vipavetz was dominant in the final, out-splitting the entire field on the first three 50s to ultimately touch in a time of 1:59.62. That broke Sam Pomajevich‘s previous mark of 2:00.23, set back in 2014.

Rick Mihm of Allegheny North, who dropped a ton of time in winning the 400 IM on day 2, swam two more personal bests in the 200 fly as well, getting all the way down to 2:01.54 in the final for 2nd, barely holding off Vipavetz’s teammate Alex Colson (2:01.63) who also set a lifetime best.

Two more meet records fell on day 3, both in the 400 free relay.

In the men’s relay, Mihm anchored Allegheny North in 50.67, combining with teammates Mason Gonzalez (51.28), Andrew Zhang (51.69) and Jack Wright (50.93) to break their 2017 record of 3:25.57 by exactly one second in 3:24.57. The record set last year was done by the same four swimmers. The Chicago Wolfpack Aquatic Club was 2nd in 3:27.85, with 15-year-old Parker Nolan throwing down a 50.98 split on their 2nd leg. That swim broke the Illinois LSC record from 2012.

For the women, Club Wolverine (3:48.74) took down the 2016 mark set by Ozaukee Aquatics (3:49.16). Their top split came from 15-year-old Sydney Stricklin, who was 56.84 on their 2nd leg.

OTHER EVENTS

• 16-year-old Reese Hazan from the Sandpipers of Nevada was another one of the swimmers who set a best time in both prelims and finals on the day, clocking 4:55.81 in the women’s 400 IM heats before unleashing a massive best 4:50.79 in the final. She built a massive lead on the front half and had to fend off a hard-charging Meghan Lynch down the stretch, as Lynch made up nearly eight seconds on the back half to make the race close. Lynch, who’s just 14 and swims for the Greenwich YWCA Dolphins, was just over a second back for 2nd in 4:51.89, her third 4:51 over the last few weeks.
• Dane Florea of the Columbia Swim Club had the perfect combination of front-end and back-half speed to win the men’s 200 free by over a second in 1:50.33, way under his best time of 1:52.40 (set in prelims, previous best was 1:53.52) and within a few tenths of the meet record (1:50.05).
• Aislinn Walsh of Irish Aquatics (32.56) edged out Nation’s Captial’s Olivia Masterton (32.58) to win the women’s 50 breast.
• Eli Fouts of Rockville Montgomery followed up his win in the 100 breast earlier in the meet with another in the men’s 50, taking it by close to a second in 28.59. That improved his previous best of 28.85 set in April.
• Club Wolverine’s Casey Chung dropped nearly a second off her best time to win the women’s 100 back in 1:01.98, holding off Germantown Academy’s Emma Atkinson (1:02.08) who also set a best time. Both swimmers are 16, and set their previous bests last week at U.S. Nationals.