Ok, Santa’s been working overtime on his Christmas list and has fallen a bit behind on delivering accolades. Our Canyons swimmers have been doing some incredible things in the water lately and Ol’ Saint Nick feels it’s time we told everyone what the good boys and girls of Canyons have achieved lately. Today’s installment will be about the National Swimmers and their adventures at the Junior National Championships in Federal Way Washington. Canyons send one of our largest contingents in team history to this event. For the guys we had Cole Cogswell, Austin Barriero, Kevin Dai, Jessie Kim, Gunnar Van Gent, Ed Yi, Brandon Yong and Tanner Olson. For the ladies we had Nikol Popov, Mik Ranslem, Tamara Santoyo, Alexa Skorus-Neely and Abbey Weitzeil. Abbey joined her teammates as a relay only swimmer after having an incredible World Short Course Championships meeting in Qatar. On individual events, Cole Cogswell led the team with a 7th place finish in the 50 free and a 20.29. In prelims, Cole swam a 20.19, which establishes and new Canyons team age group and open record (by 1/100th!). Cole then swam a 1:37.28 to take 6th in the 200 free. Kevin Dai finished 13th in the 100 free finals with a personal best of 44.84 Jessie Kim continued his backstroke dominance with a 4th place finish in a personal best and team age group and open record time of 48.21. He matched that fourth palce in the 200 back with a time of 1:44.75, which once again broke the team age group and open record A special mention needs to go to Tanner Olson who earned his Junior National cut a few weeks earlier. Tanner dropped nearly 2 seconds in the 100 breast to put himself within 1 second of the team open record and closing on the team age group record. The 200 free saw him drop 2.5 seconds, which let everyone know that Canyons has a major breaststroker in the making. For the ladies the big scorer was Nikol Popov who earned silver in the 100 breaststroke with her 1:00.86 which broke the SCS 15-16 age group record (and team open and age group). The former record belonged to Andrea Kropp who now swims at USC and at Canyons, so that record will stay in the family. Nikol finished 21st in the 200 breaststroke and 17th in the 200IM Tamara Santoyo earned 12th place in the 100 fly with a 53.89, which is short of her club record. Alexa Skorus-Neely earned a second swim in the 100 breaststroke and managed 24th place with her personal record swim of 1:03.53. The individual events were something great, but the relays were something else. Canyons showed that when we swim as a team we cannot be beaten. The women’s relays were simply unstoppable earning 4 trips to the podium, 4 gold medals, 4 team records, 4 SCS records and one Junior National Meet record. While Abbey Weitzeil was important in each victory, it was the effort her teammates that made the record happen. The 4 x 50 free medley relays featured Mik Ranslem on the back, Nikol Popov on breast, Tamara Santoyo on fly and Abbey on the free. Their time of 1:40.25 established a new SCS record. That the same 4 in the 4 x 100 medley duplicated effort rely as the fearless four broke yet another SCS record with the 3.37.86 swim. The old record was 3.42.86 so the didn’t actually just break the record, the obliterated is, stomped it into the ground, called it mean names and took its lunch money. Do not mess with these four ladies in a medley relay. The have only one goal – winning. The 4 x 50 relay was more of the same with Abbey taking the lead off, Tamara swimming second, Nikol third and Mik as the anchor. This time they broke the SCS record of 1:32.57 with the 1:31.14. The good news – Canyons now owns that record. The bad news – we already owned it from last year. For those scoring along at home Abbey split a 21.49 in the lead off leg almost breaking the American record in that event. She did pick up the SCS age group record (which she already had) and the SCS Open record previously held by Jessica Hardy (21.83). The last relay for the ladies was the 4 x 100 with Abbey, Tamara, Mik and the team youngster – Alexa Skorus-Neely. Swimming in lane #8, Abbey did something no one in the world has ever done, ever, in the history of swimming, ever. She swam a 46.29 for the 100 free. That time broke the American Record in the 100 free that had previously belonged to Simone Manuel. Further research shows that since the 100 free (yards) is seldom swum outside of America, Abbey’s time is actually and unofficial WORLD RECORD. Needless to say, there was pandemonium in the pool as Abbey had broken the record, but there was one small problem – the time would not count if the relay team was disqualified. The next three Canyons swimmers where all pro and turned in a blazing 3:18.51 breaking Mission Viejo’s 1981 time of 3:19.55. So, if you are keeping score, Canyons now owns 4 of the 5 15-18 age group records. WE are only missing the 4 x 200 record (an event we skipped at this meet). Sure Abbey was a huge part of each race, but these were team events and her presence at the meet in these events was a testament to how we roll at Canyons. All for one and one for all. The guys had their work cut out for them and did not disappoint. The 4 x 50 medley relay had Kim on the back, Dai on breast, Edward Yi on fly and Cogswell on the anchor. Their time of 1:30.31 broke the SCS record held by the Aquazot (1:31.90).. In the 4 x 100 medley relay the fantastic 4 swam a 3:18.13, which broke yet an other SCS record (see a pattern yet?) also held by the Aquazots. The 4 x 50 free replay did not break an SCS record but did earn 4th place honors. With Dai, Cogswell, Kim, and Barreiro doing all the heavy lifting. Cogswell, Dai and Kim were joined by Brandon Yong in the 4 x 100 relay and became the first SCS team to go under 3:00 with their 2:59.82 time. That SCS record swim breaks Canyons own SCS record from 2 years ago. The Canyons boys own three of the five age group records in the 15-18 age group. All we can say is WOW. Canyons has emerged as the team to beat in So Call and across the nation. Our sprinters and middle distance swimmers are among the best in the nation (and the world) and our Coach; Coley Stickles is the talk of the deck. How are our swimmers doing it? Hard work, dedication and coaching that cannot be found anywhere in the world. You can swim fast or you can swim Canyons fast. There is a difference. Tune in tomorrow as we update you on the WAG meet and on sectional. As we go to print, we see Canyons age group swimmers have broken another SCS record (15-16 Medley relay). The Canyons legacy of SCS records is nothing short of astounding
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:00:35 +0000
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