One of the best meets on the club schedule runs this weekend in Oklahoma City, where the Chesapeake Swim Club runs their annual Elite Pro-Am yards meet. The swimmers from Mission Viejo dominated the first day of the meet, not a huge surprise given that the first day saw primarily distance events – a specialty for the Nadadores.
In the men’s 1000 free, Tennessee commit David Heron was just a bit better on the finish to outrun a pair of his teammates with a 9:08.82.
He and fellow 17-year old Janardan Burns, who is headed to Cal, flipped identically headed into the final 50, so with Burns taking second in 9:09.01, the difference was all in the guts of Heron on the last lap.
15-year old Nicholas Norman is looking like he’s going to be the next generation of impressive Bill Rose distance swimmers, as many of their elites are graduating high school after this year; he was 3rd in 9:09.83, just behind his teammates.
In the women’s race, always one of the best on the schedule, it was Minnesota’s Ashley Steenvoorden who won in 9:33.45, though it didn’t take the same finishing kick for her. She opened up about a three-second lead at the halfway mark over Emily Brunemann, and held it right there throughout. Brunemann, who recently moved back to Michigan to continue her training, was 2nd in 9;36.28.
Mission Viejo’s Brooke Lorentzen was 3rd in 9:49.72.
The Nadadores didn’t only do well in the distance races on day 1, however. They alsoperformed well in the 200 medley relays. Their A-squad of juniors won the girls’ race in 1:47.10, a full-second margin of victory, including a 24.0 from star Katie McLaughlin on the butterfly leg. The Wild West Aquatic Club was 2nd.
The Schroeder YMCA men, including Olympian Adam Mania and former NCAA Al-American Steve Cebertowicz, easily won the men’s race in 1:30.93 (a squad made up of 4 collegiate post-grads). Mission Viejo took 2nd there in 1:34.07.
Closing the session in the 800 fre relays, Mission Viejo once again won the women’s race easily, with a 14-second margin of victory. In fact, they took 1st and 2nd in this relay. Top split honors again goes to McLaughlin, who led off in 1:47.28. The Mission Viejo men also went 1-2 in their relay, with the A topping out in 6:50.45; Burns was a 1:41.61 on their 2nd leg.