Each week, USA Swimming releases their top 20 zone times. Swimming World will provide a unique analysis of the zones each week. Here, you’ll find the zones’ strengths, top athletes, and top times.
USA Swimming Central Zone
Girls: Eason Jones and Hanna Hailu added their names to the top of the Central Zone’s best 11-year old girls with their performances in the 200-meter back and 200-meter fly, respectively.
New 12-year old Mariah Denigan topped the 400-meter free with a 4:35.08. Ally Silvestri (100-meter breast), Brecken Merkel (100-meter fly), and Melinda Zhang (200-meter fly) also swam zone-best times for the 12-year old girls.
The 13 and 14-year old girls had plenty of change at the top as well, which is a clear indication that the Central Zone is picking up some serious steam. Linda Licari, 13, swam her way to the top of the 50-meter free, while Mary Jania climbed her way to the top in the 200-meter breast and 200-meter IM in the same age group. Regan Smith hammered away to six new zone-best times for the 13-year old girls in the 100 and 200-meter free, both backstrokes, and both butterfly races. Carla Gildersleeve (400-meter free) and Maddy Potter (100 and 200-meter fly) set new marks for the 14-year old girls.
Sophie Skinner, 15, of the Northern Kentucky Clippers sprinted her way to the a zone-best 50-meter free and Olympic Trial qualifying time with her 25.88. Melissa Pish posted two new top times in the 200 and 400-meter free in the same age group. Claire Adams and Hannah Kukurugya swam zone bests in the 100-meter free and 200-meter fly, respectively, for the 16-year old girls.
In the 17 and 18-year old girls’ age groups, there were four new top times. Rylee Linhardt (200-meter back) and Vanessa Krause (100-meter fly) were tops in for the 17-year old girls, while Emily Meckstroth (800-meter free) and Maggie Werba (200-meter IM) hit zone bests for the 18-year old girls.
Boys: Like the girls, there was plenty of changes at the top of the Central Zone. For the 11-year old boys, James Pan of Aquajets Swim Team swam three new zone-best times in the 50-meter free, 200-meter breast, and 400-meter IM. Kerry Meng-Lin (50-meter breast) and Daniel Langlois (400-meter free) also added zone bests for the age group.
Colin Schuster (1500-meter free) and Grafton Parlette (200-meter back) made the list for the 12-year old boys. A pair of Northern Kentucky Clippers – Seth Young in the 100-meter fly and David Johnson in the 50 and 100-meter back – also set new marks in the age group. Hayden Zheng busted out four new top times in the 100 and 200-meter breast and both IMs.
In the 13-year old boys age group, Jonathan Tang sprinted his way to the number-one spot in the 50-meter free at a 25.39. Thomas Reedy also set new marks in the age group for the 100 and 200-meter breast.
Joshua Withers of Team Foxjet swam a 2:05.55 in the 200-meter fly to top the 15-year old boys age group. Johnthomas Larson swam a zone best in the 400-meter free for the 16-year old boys, while Spencer Lehman topped the zone for the 17-year old boys in the 800-meter free. Justin Plaschka, 18, rounded out the new Central Zone top times with his 55.25 100-meter fly.
USA Swimming Eastern Zone
Girls: Megan Lynch lowered the mark on a number of her 11-year old girls’ zone-best times, including the 100, 200, and 400-meter free as well as the 100-meter breast and the 200-meter IM.
The rest of the age group top slots went quietly unchanged. Kaitlin Harty of Greenwood Memorial Swim Club was able to notch the top 17-year old girls time in the 100-meter back with her 1:02.79.
Swimming juggernaut Katie Ledecky popped off new zone and national bests in the 18-year old girls’ 200 and 400-meter free at the Bucceto Open at Indiana University. She added a season-best 400-meter IM time of 4:41.70 to her stellar weekend.
Boys: The bar had already been set fairly high across the board in the Eastern Zone. Because of that, changes at the very top were few and far between this past week. Will Barao notched zone bests in the 400-meter free and 200-meter IM for the 14-year old boys. He was the only Eastern Zone boy to swim a new top time.
Nonetheless, the Eastern Zone boys are still a force to reckon with. Their power point total is neck and neck with the Southern Zone.
USA Swimming Western Zone
Girls: In the 11-year old girls Iz Meraz hit a 33.48 to top the zone in the 50-meter back, while Ana Jih-Schiff smoked a 36.11 in the 50-meter breast. Lizzy Cook, 12, cracked the one-minute barrier to lead the 100-meter free with a 59.88.
Amanda Hsieh from Irvine Novaquatics swam her way to first in the 400-meter IM for the 13-year old girls, while Erica Sullivan’s 16:51.10 1500-meter free catapulted her to first for the 14-year old girls.
Samantha Shelton notched four zone bests for the 15-year old girls in the 100, 400, and 800-meter free and the 200-meter IM. Her Mission Viejo teammate Jessica Epps hit a top time in the 200-meter fly, while Katie Glavinovich swam zone bests in the 200-meter back and 400-meter IM for the same age group.
Katie McLaughlin lowered the mark in the 100 and 200-meter free for the 17-year old girls. She also swam zone bests in the 100 and 200-meter fly. Erin Emery now leads in the distance free races with her top times in the 800 and 1500-meter free. For the 18 year old girls, Sonia Wang (200-meter fly) and Ella Eastin (400-meter IM) added their times to the top of the list.
Boys: In the 11-year old boys age group, Zach Le-Nguyen was the only change at the top when he picked up a zone best in the 50-meter fly. The 12-year old boys saw three changes: Lleyton Plattel in the 1500-meter free, Keane Alejandro in the 100-meter breast, and Winn Aung in the 27.65.
Luca Urlando lowered the mark in the 200-meter fly for the 13-year old boys with a 2:11.94, while Seth Chun set the new standard for the 14-year old boys with a 2:07.55. In the 15-year old boys age group, Owen Kao’s 3:59.28 400-meter free became the new standard. Meanwhile, Daniel Kim (100-meter fly) and Simon Lamar (800-meter free) also set new 15-year old marks.
Grant Shoults, Logan Houck, and Justin Lynch notched a number of new zone bests for the 18-year old boys. Shoults conquered the 200-meter free, 400-meter free, and 200-meter IM. Houck gutted out bests in the 800 and 1500-meter free, while Lynch etched his name at the top of both butterfly races.
USA Swimming Southern Zone
Girls: The apex of the 11 and 12-year old girls age groups remained unchanged, but Andrea Santander made her mark in the 13-year old division with top times in the 200 (2:05.83) and 400-meter free (4:25.29). Meanwhile, Gabriela Donahue added her name to the best 13-year olds with a 1:07.14 100-meter back. Like the Eastern Zone, there were no other changes amongst the age group swimmers.
Nitro Swimming’s Regan Barney notched top times in the 200-meter back and 400-meter IM for the 16-year old girls, while her teammate Karling Hemstreet gutted out a 17:11.38 1500-meter free to grab the top spot for the 17-year old girls. Summer Finke also swam a zone-best 1500-meter free for the 18-year old girls age group in 17:01.64.
Boys: Jordan Dorado posted two top times for the 11-year old boys in the 100 and 400-meter free this past weekend. He now holds seven top times in the Southern Zone. Kory Kimura, 12, swam his way to the top of the 800-meter free in 9:23.05. Meanwhile, Nitro’s Jack Grieshop swam the fastest 200-meter fly for the 13-year old boys with his 2:18.12.
Miguel Cancel swam zone bests for the 15-year old boys in the 200-meter fly and 400-meter IM. Nikita Tretyakov, 16, busted out a 56.08 to set a new mark in the 100-meter fly. Meanwhile, Sean Grieshop hit four new zone bests in the 400, 800, and 1500-meter free and the 400-meter IM.
Links:
Central Zone link only has times from June.
Im the best
I wish ?
Probably not…
no but my friend Jonathan Tang is
Very proud to see my son in the number 2 spot for 13 -year old 100 breast in the Eastern Zone.