Speedo Midwest Challenge Recap

Speedo Midwest Challenge Recap

 

12 HSC team records were broken and many best times were achieved this past weekend when 29 of our seniors travelled to the University of Iowa to race in the Speedo Midwest Challenge.  

 

Podium Finishes: 

 

HSC ended the meet on a high note - a first place podium finish for our Men’s Open 400 Freestyle relay.  In a very competitive and exciting race, Jack Thorell, Nick Tommasone, Jay Jensen and John Tischke combined to swim a time of 3:05.46, which is a HSC Open Boys Team Record and meets the USA Swimming Winter Junior National qualifying standard. 

 

Our other Top 3 podium finish was Nick Tommasone in the Men’s Open 500 Freestyle, who swam a time of 4:33 (a huge 13 second time drop from his personal best time) and then turned around and contributed to the team’s first place 400 free relay win just a few minutes later.

 

Finalists:

 

Gianna Cappello made finals in all 6 of her individual events, swimming a personal best time in all of them.  She won her finals heats of the 200 Free and the the 200 IM.  Her 13 swims at the meet were the most by an HSC athlete.

 

Joanna Gould swam a best time of 5:14.46 in the 500 Free, dropping over two seconds from her prelims swim to win her Finals heat. 

 

Connor Groya won a three way swim-off in the 50 Free to advance to Finals.  He swam a 21.70 twice to make it into Finals.  Connor achieved personal best times in all of his events.

 

Jay Jensen qualified for Finals in all but two of his individual events.  He finished 8th in the 400 IM, 12th in the 200 Free, 5th in the 200 IM, 14th in the 500 Free and was part of the winning 400 Free Relay.  He swam best times in almost all of his events.

 

Jack Kobus had a huge best time in the 100 Breaststroke, breaking 1:00 for the first time to qualify for Finals.  He swam a 58.32, which was over a three second drop from his previous best.  He placed 13th in Finals.  He also dropped over 5 seconds in his 200 IM with time of 2:08.56. He swam personal best times in all of his events at the meet, and contributed to the 7th place Medley relay.

 

Jack Thorell qualified for Finals in all of his Saturday events, placing 22nd in the 100 Back and 11th in the 50 Free.  He also contributed to the team’s 1st and 7th place relay teams.  Jack swam personal best times in the 50 and 100 free (relay lead off) and the 100 Fly.  He swam a scorching fast 45.91 to lead off the winning 400 free relay.

 

John Tischke qualified for Finals in the 100 Fly, dropping over a second off his best in Finals with a 51.74.  His biggest time drop came in the 100 Free, where he swam a 47.74, a personal best by 1.92 seconds.  He also contributed to the team’s 1st and 7th place relay teams.  John swam best times in all but one of his events.

 

Last but not least, Nick Tommasone was the team’s leading individual scorer of the meet.  He made finals in all of his events.  Besides his two podium swims mentioned above as well as the 7th place medley relay, he placed 7th in the 200 Free, 9th in the 50 Free, and 10th in the 100 Free.  He swam a 45.79 100 free split in the winning relay.

 

Other Notable Swims:

 

Kashif Carter dropped a whopping 20 seconds in his 500 Free with a time of 4:57.17, the biggest single time drop for our team. He also dropped over 4 seconds in the 200 Fly and over a second off his best in the 100 Fly with times of 2:01.75 and 53:91, respectively.

 

Andrew Fix dropped over 4.5 seconds in his 200 IM with a time of 2:11.76.

 

Charlie Fix swam a sub-1:00 100 Breast and had a nice drop in the 200 IM with a time of 2:03.92.

 

Nate Harris had huge time drops in all of his events.  He averaged drops of over 2.5 seconds in his 100s, 5.5 seconds in his 200s and 10 

seconds in his 500. 

 

Andrew Gilbert dropped over 2 seconds in his 100 Back with a time of 57.15. 

 

Luke Knutte swam personal best times in all four of his freestyle events.

 

Nick Maiers dropped over 3 seconds off his best in the 200 Back with a time of 2:07.40 and swam best times in all of his other events.

 

John McCarty had big drops in the 200 and 500 Free, swimming times of 1:51.86 and 4:55.25.  He also dropped 4.5 seconds in the 200 Fly.  He swam best times in all of his events.

 

Henry Olenec dropped over 12 seconds off his best in the 200 Back, swimming a time of 2:07.98.  He swam best times in all but one of his events.

 

Erkan Ozgen swam a time of 1:46.66 in the 200 Free, over a two second drop, and 21.89 in the 50 Free.

 

Dmitriy Shvydkoy dropped over 14 seconds off his personal best time in the mile, swimming a 17:20.47.

 

Derek Song went under 1:00 in the 100 Breast for the first time, and also had a 4.5 second drop in the 200 IM with a 2:06.02.

 

Luke Thorell dropped over 2 seconds from his best time in the 200 Free, swimming a 1:49.82.

 

AJ Vitek dropped over 4.5 seconds in his 200 IM with a time of 2:05.45 and over 3 seconds in his 200 Back with a time of 2:00.85.  

 

Team Records:

 

The following athletes set new HSC Team Records at the meet:

 

Gianna Cappello 

13-14 Girls 200 Free - 1:55.44 (old record - Jazmin Shenouda 1:57.83 in 2013)

13-14 Girls 200 Back - 2:08.36 (old record - Kendall Pickering 2:09.23 in 2018)

 

Andrew Gilbert 

13-14 Boys 50 Free - 22.72 (old record - Adam Deets 22.99 in 1994)

13-14 Boys 100 Free - 49.20 (old record was his own - 49.83 in 3/2019)

 

Nate Harris 

13-14 Boys 200 Breast - 2:16.94 (old record - Rohan Bhatt 2:17.18 in 3/2019)

13-14 Boys 200 IM - 2:04.67 (old record - Craig Chiasta 2:05.15 in 1976)  

 

Jack Thorell 

17-18 Boys 50 free - 21.04 (old record was his own - 21.11 in 2/2019)

17-18 Boys 100 free - 45.91 (ties the current record holder David Kormushoff from 2004)

 

Nick Tommasone 

15-16 Boys 100 free - 45.96 (old record - Cullen Cochlan - 46.17 in 2018)

15-16 Boys  200 free - 1:40.04  (old record - Cullen Cochlan - 142:01 in 2018)

 

AJ Vitek

15-16 Boys 200 Back - 2:00.85  (old record was 2:00.97 - William Leach in 2011)

 

Jack Thorell, Nick Tommasone, Jay Jensen, John Tischke 

Open Boys 400 free relay - 3:05.46 (old record - N. Tommasone, J. Thorell, C. Cochlan, B. Breitenbucher - 3:05.69 from 3/2019)

 

 

Congratulations to all of our athletes and coaches!