In what has been an incredible relay record-breaking weekend, the girls from SwimMAC Carolina broke the 15-16 girls’ 200 meter medley relay record with a 1:57.48. That took down the old record of 1:58.25 that was set by a really impressive group from the Bluefish Swim Club in New England.
That old record was held by a combination of Elizabeth Beisel, Laura Sogar, Alex Forrester, and Alex Frasier; Beisel and Sogar are both international-level swimmers for the United States and NCAA Champions, and Forrester is a multi-time All-American as well.
The new record holders were Nora McCullagh, Sarah Stranick, Alyssa Marsh, and Jessica Merritt. Because the old record holders went on to such great accomplishments, we thought this would make a good candidate for a split comparison. Beneath, see the times for Bluefish’s relay at a Sectional meet on Long Island in 2008 as compared to SwimMAC’s at the North Carolina Senior Championships on Sunday:
| Old Record | New Record | |
| Bluefish Swim Club | SwimMAC Carolina | |
| Beisel/McCullagh | 30.27 | 29.81 |
| Sogar/Stranick | 32.91 | 33.83 |
| Forrester/Marsh | 27.89 | 26.98 |
| Frasier/Merritt | 27.18 | 26.76 |
| 1:58.25 | 1:57.48 |
Marsh, daughter of SwimMAC CEO and Olympic coach David Marsh, made up a good chunk of the ground, and maybe the really impressive number is Nora McCullagh beating Beisel’s split by almost half-a-second, though Beisel has never truly been a sprinter. Marsh’s butterfly split, in fact, was half-a-second faster than her freestyle split was on the 200 free relay the night before (a 26.9 is an outstanding split for a 16 year old freestyle, and an unreal split on butterfly).
That’s a good indicator for the future of these swimmers.
Full, live results from the meet (which don’t include this relay result) are available here.
Bluefish Swim Club is out of Attleboro, Mass not Rhode Island.
But Beisel and Sogar are both from the Ocean State!
Holy Bisquits, Coach Marsh. That’s a great relay and fast kid you got there… Well done SwimMac girls.