Scott Pekarske Drops 34 Seconds to Win 1500 at Santa Clara Futures

2017 FUTURES — SANTA CLARA

• Thursday, August 3 – Sunday, August 6, 2017
• Santa Clara, CA
• Psych sheet
• Live results – Meet Mobile
• Prelims timeline

Distance races and relays were the name of the game on day 1 at the 2017 Futures Championships in Santa Clara, California, with out-of-state swimmers winning 3 of the 4 events.

In the opening 800 free, Lindsey Soule from the Corvallis Aquatic Team demonstrated exactly what these Futures meets were designed for. She came into the meet with a lifetime best of 9:10.70 in the 800 free and dropped more than 12 seconds to win in 8:57.55. That gives her a 2nd career Summer Juniors cut and helps her make the leap to a multi-swim meet next summer if she chooses to do so. The drop will also play well as she enters her senior season and starts looking at colleges.

The men’s 1500 free had an even bigger drop from Tucson Ford’s Scott Pekarske. He improved his best from 16:27.85 all the way down to a 15:54.03 – blowing right through the Juniors cut and on to a U.S. Open standard. That’s his first career swim in any event better than a Winter Juniors cut – though that’s unlikely to be true at the end of this meet. He was able to hold back a late-charging Daniel Blake of the host Santa Clara Swim Club for a 1-second win: Blake took 2nd in 15:55.11.

Another Oregon team, Tualatin Hills Swim Club, picked up a win in the men’s 800 free relay. The team of Trenton Martinez, Ethan Luc, Marco Nosack, and Anthony Nosack combined for a 1:56.14.

That left the 800 free relay as the only win by a California day in 4 events on the meet’s opening day. North Coast Aquatics won in 8:24.85, which put them 4 seconds ahead of Tualatin’s runner-up women’s relay. That win helped NCA build a huge 40-point day 1 lead.

Team Standings After Day 1:

Men’s Top 5:

1. Tucson Ford – 82
2. Santa Clara Swim Club – 71
3. Mission Viejo Nadadores – 48
4. De Anza Cupertino Aquatics – 47
5. Tualatin Hills – 44

Women’s Top 5:

1. North Coast Aquatics – 91
2. Tucson Ford – 51
3. La Mirada Armada – 49
4. Tualatin Hills – 38
5. Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics – 36