SAN JOSE, California, April 4. THE first night of the 2013 Speedo Far Western Short Course Championships saw a handful of meet records fall at the Morgan Hill Aquatic Center.
For the live stream of finals, and to re-watch prelim and final on-demand races, video interviews and daily re-caps, visit the Swimming World TV event landing page. Note: Prelims will be on-demand only and will not be streamed live.
Palo Alto's Jennifer Campbell dominated the ten-man deep finals field in the girl's 15-16 200 yard freestyle. Keeping her splits under 28 seconds, she touched the wall for a final time of 1:47.83, nearly a full second ahead of the 1:48.73 set in 2009 by current California Golden Bear sophomore Catherine Breed. Campbell actually broke Breed's record in prelims, when she snagged the top finals seed at a 1:48.68.
Not to be outdone, the 15-16 age group men saw Cooper Burrill re-write its own 200 freestyle meet record. Burrill beat top seed Connor Anderson (UVRA) for the win, 1:40.67 to 1:41.47. The winning time bettered the 1:41.22 meet record set in 2011 by Kyle Castro.
Erika Brown took University of Southern California commit Chelsea Chenault's 2009 13-14 girls 200 freestyle meet record. Brown touched for the win at a 1:49.25, just ahead of the 1:49.32 record. The race was back and forth with Quicksilver's Lauren Green, who turned slightly ahead of Brown at the 150, before Brown chased her down with a fast 27.72 last 50 split. Green finished the event second at a 1:49.37.
200 freestyle 13-14 boys NAG record holder Maxime Rooney took his first win of the night in his signature event. Although his 1:39.67 final time was shy of his 1:38.42 NAG record, it was good enough for the Far Western meet record, previously set in 2010 by Pleasanton's Nick Silverthorn, at a 1:39.71. Second place in the event went to Benjamin Ho at a 1:39.98, who was back and forth with Rooney throughout the race. Rooney also took the 13-14 100 butterfly title later in the evening.
Cole Hurwitz (TDPS) smashed the previous 17-18 200 breaststroke meet record, 2:05.37 set in 1992 by Matt Brown, with a winning 2:00.02. Although Hurwitz was far ahead of his competition, second place finisher Timothy Kou was also under the previous meet record, touching the wall at a 2:05.28.
Palo Alto's Joe Molinari erased another meet record in the boy's 15-16 200 yard backstroke. His 1:50.03 winning time was under West Side Silver Fin's Tyler Messerschmidt's 1:50.54 from 2008.
Benjamin DuFauchard (TOPS) blew his competition out of the water in the 11-12 200 yard backstroke. He broke the meet record in the event prelims, at a 2:17.41. He came back in the finals to break the meet record again, winning in a 2:16.88. He finished over seven seconds ahead of his nearest competition.
