Congratulations to all the swimmers who have acheived a National cut in one or more events. And special recognition to those swimmers joining the ranks of the Countryside Torpedoes National Team for the first time at the Southwest Cluster Short Course League Championship.
| National Team Qualifiers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tyler Benner | Carlo Biedenharn | Lynn Brotherton |
| Carolyn Carter | Tim Early | Christian Josephson |
| Jacob Kramb | Aaron Lawson | Rachael Lewis |
| Breann McDowell* | Kim Recinella | Paul Skousen |
| Therese Stevens | Ian Wooley | Steven Zimmerman |
Wow! What a great way to end the meet! Aaron Lawson was awarded the Male Outstanding Athlete Scholarship by Nike. He broke Jason Praeter’s long-standing record in the 200 Butterfly during prelims and then made it even better at finals.
Speaking of records, Carlo Biedenharn once again shaved a bit off his team record. This time in the 1650 Freestyle with a 15:55.66 to earn him an 11th place spot at the awards platform.
The Men’s 400 Medley Relay made it back to the B final and put on quite a race. Steven Zimmerman’s backstroke put the team in the lead. Then Tyler Benner took over on breastroke and held off most of the field. Ian Wooley’s butterfly was his best time ever to keep the team back in a fight for second place, and Carlo Biedenharn’s freestyle was able to out swim the pack and claim 2nd place in the heat and 10th place overall.
Steven Zimmerman swam an exciting 200 Backstroke in which he was the top seed at Finals. His 1:44.79 took more than 2 seconds off his team record from last year and he very nearly broke the national record.
The Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay also made it back to swim at finals dropping more than 10 seconds off their seeded time and swimming even better at night to make the total drop nearly 12 seconds.
Lynn Brotherton started the day with a 100 Butterfly that got her the dreaded first alternate position. Not as lucky as Christian Josephson who landed in the same position, but a scratch moved him into the C Final with Steven Zimmerman. Both came back to improve their times and places a bit. Carlo Biedenharn had to settle for the C final in the 200 Freestyle as well, but also managed to improve time and place in the evening. Neither of the relays made it back for finals, but Carlo dropped a few more seconds off his time from last year’s Nationals in the 1000 Freestyle to end the preliminary session and that was enough to place him 19th overall.
A Great start to the meet. Steven Zimmerman returns to finals tonight in both his 100 Backstroke and 200 I.M. Carlo Biedenharn returns in the 500 Freestyle after setting a new team record. Paul Skousen and Breann McDowell didn’t swim today, but got a bit of a workout counting in the 500 events for Carolyn Carter, Christian Josephson, Tyler Benner, and Carlo Biedenharn.
Apparently Steven was not content with his record from the Ohio H.S. State meet being the CY record, so he went a 48.62 in his 100 Backstroke at finals (perhaps he rotated the middle digits from prelims around the decimal point). Carlo must have liked that idea, because he shaved a bit more off of his still-shiny record in the 500 Freestyle with 4:34.51 (maybe because the digits form a prime number).
