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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, April 7. THE distance aces at YMCA Nationals definitely saved the best for last as both men and women shattered records in the 1650 on the final night. The evening showcased one of the closest if not THE closest mile swim races in history. Both Corinne Showalter from the Sarasota YMCA in Florida AND Leah Gingrich from the West Shore YMCA broke the 1650 yard Freestyle record. Everyone had to turn to the scoreboard to see that Leah touched at 16:17.34 to Corinne's 16:17.36. Who said the 1650 is boring? Oh, and the old record – 16:19.05.
In the next event, both Ryan Crete of the Sarasota YMCA and Charlie Houchin of the YMCA of the Triangle in North Carolina also cruised past the old record of 15:15.84. Ryan touched the wall with a 15:12.33 but was still second to Charlie's 15:10.41. Houchin, who will be a freshman at Michigan next year, won all of the distance events and broke two records in the process.
In team scores, YMCA of the Triangle Area dominated the overall competition from day one to win with a score of 801.5. New Canaan Community YMCA had a fantastic final day to leap into second place with a score of 658. Sarasota YMCA rounded out the field on to place third with 585 points. While Triangle won the male side, Sarasota was the female team champ.