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With 2:12.8 IM At Trials, Leah Hayes Passes Kukors For #12 In 15-16 History

2021 U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS

Leah Hayes and Charlotte Hook both went lifetime-bests in tonight’s Olympic Trials semifinal of the 200 IM, both cracking the top 20 in age group history.

The 15-year-old Hayes, of the Fox Valley Park District Riptides, went 2:12.89 in tonight’s semifinal round, taking 10th overall and dropping two-tenths off her lifetime-best.

Hayes went 2:13.06 back in 2019 – that still sits #2 in the 13-14 age group history behind only Missy Franklin. Hayes has since aged up to the 15-16 age group, though she’s still on the younger end of that bracket at 15. Her swim tonight moves her up to #12 all-time in that age group, two spots ahead of former world record-holder Ariana Kukors.

The National Age Group record is a 2:10.41 set by Katie Hoff back in 2005. Hayes is about 2.4 seconds off that record with a full year left in the age group.

Meanwhile, in the same semifinal, 17-year-old Charlotte Hook also moved up in her own age group’s history. Hook went 2:13.04, taking six-tenths of a second off her best time. Like Hayes, Hook’s best time comes from several years ago, when she was down an age group. Her big swim today moves her to #19 in 17-18 age group history, and just like Hayes, she has a full year left in that age group.

She displaces Regan Smith, who was 2:13.18 in this age group. Smith, now 19, just made her first Olympic team tonight in the 100 back.

The National Age Group record for 17-18s is 2:09.01 from Alex Walsh.

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frug
3 years ago

Always nice to see someone from the the Fox River Valley succeed. Congrats Ms. Hayes you look to have a long career ahead of you.

USA
3 years ago

Hot Takes for the Rest of Trials

  • Margalis, L. Smith, Baker, Cox, and Smoliga do not make the team
  • I would love to be wrong but I truly do not see any of them making it
  • Douglas and Walsh did UVA a 1-2 punch in the 200 IM

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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