Thursday, February 13, 2020

High school swimming record-breaking season has begun


Five days ago as I write this, swimmer Phoebe Bacon from Washington DC's Stone Ridge school (where Katie Ledecky used to attend) broke the national high school record in the 100 yard backstroke (50.89).  She swam a 51.32 slightly earlier in the season.

The night before in North Carolina, Claire Curzan smashed the 100 butterfly record set last year in Virginia by Torri Huske, lowering it from 51.29 to an astonishing 50.38.  Curzan also came close to Bacon's standing 51.32 100 backstroke record with a 51.38, even though Bacon went faster the next day.

All of that is rather impressive.  Furthermore, the Virginia high school championships are coming right up on February 20-22, and I expect that Huske might have had breaking 51 seconds in the 100 fly at that meet on her mind.  And she's still swimming pretty well -- back in December she won the U.S. Open 100 meter butterfly (long course) over a good field with a national age group 15-16 record.   So we'll see if she can come close to, or surpass, Curzan's phenomenal swim.  I expect she'll give it a pretty good shot.







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