Meets and Feats
Despite some great record-breaking efforts by West Shore YMCA swimmers, Middle Tyler YMCA continued to pile points on the board through outstanding team depth and pull away in a bid to sweep the team titles.
The West Shore/Middle Tyger battle started right away in the 100m Fly as West Shore's Leah Gingrich and Middle Tyger's Haley Lips drove each other under the old national standard of 1:02.37, held by Lips. Gingrich ended up on top in this one, finishing in 1:00.49, taking the win and the record. Lips finished a close second in 1:01.19, racking up all-important team points for Middle Tyger.
Alex Smit won the event on the men's side, taking first in 56.69 in an event where five of the eight "A" finalists were either West Shore or Middle Tyger swimmers. West Shore's Kevin Marsteller (56.95) and Red Bank's Greg Daniele (57.59) rounded out the top thee.
Blue Ash YMCA took two of the top three spots in the Women's 200m Breaststroke, with Stephanie Conklin winning in 2:36.68. She was joined by her teammate Amanda Rom (2:39.30), who joined Conklin in bookending Middle Tyger's Caroline Fore (2:38.99) to round out the top spots.
Fanwood Scotch's Scott Marino made it two national titles on the meet with a win in the 200m Breast, arriving at the final wall first in 2:24.25 winning a close three-way race where the top finishers all converged at the finish. Cheshire's Austin Mizell (2:24.48) and Middle Tyger's Jared Kauffman (2:24.62) finished second and third respectively.
Middle Tyger hit high gear in the Women's 200m Free as the youthful Haley Lips bagged the win in 2:05.30, followed by her teammate Addie Carne in 2:06.45. Anne Arundel's Emily Lloyd finished third in 2:06.48.
In the men's event Upper Main Line's Evan Reed led wire to wire. Cheshire's Travis McNamara challenged briefly at the midway point, only to have Reed power away down the stretch to finish in 1:53.35 to McNamara's 1:55.02. Countryside's Jim Barbiere finished third in 1:55.51.
Both 400m Free Relays featured new national standards set. West Shore and Middle Tyger ladies teams both swam under the old mark of 3:58.73, set in 2001 by M.E. Lyons YMCA, but it was the West Shore squad of Lauren Schmittle, Claire Loht, Stephanie Kinsey, and Leah Gingrich who emerged with the win and record with their stunning 3:55.59 effort that was capped by a crippling 56.22 anchor leg by Gingrich that catapulted the West Shore squad past Middle Tyger for the win.
While the Middle Tyger women may have had to settle for second despite an effort that brought them significantly under the seven-year-old record, it was not so with the men. The Men's 400m Free Relay was Middle Tyger all the way. Greg Morgan, Lee Groseclose, Graham Kaufman, and Chris Reinke led all the way to establishing a new mark of 3:33.66, downing the 1996 standard of Ann Arbor in the process.
John Lesko is the Editor of Swimnetwork.com. He can be reached at jlesko@swimnetwork.com.
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