CHARLOTTE – A few athletes from SwimMAC Carolina’s Team Elite squad showed up to the North Carolina Masters short course meters championships and put on a show for those in attendance, but it was Donald Graham who left the event with a Masters world record.
Graham, 60 years old, posted a 27.53 in the 50 butterfly, taking down Rich Abraham’s six-year-old record of 27.87 in the 60-64 age group. By all indications, this is Graham’s first Masters world record. He went after Takeo Hiramoto’s world record of 1:03.67 in the 100 fly, but fell short with a 1:05.80. The kicker was that he swam that 100 time during the 200 fly event, so he had to swim 100 more meters of butterfly in order to make the time count! His splits of 1:35.36 on the third 50 of the 200 and 1:23.01 on the final 50 show that it was anything but easy.
SwimMAC’s team had some impressive swims. Micah Lawrence, a world championship bronze medalist in the 200 breast, took down her own national record in the 200 breast for the 18-24 age group with a 2:32.80. She also swam a 32.99 in the 50 breast, missing Beata Kazsuba’s national record of 32.09. Gregory Mallet, a member of France’s silver medal-winning 800 free relay at the 2012 Olympics, nearly got Stephan Kunzelmann’s world record of 49.04 in the 100 free for the 30-34 age group, posting a 49.27. He also swam a 23.66 in the 50 free and 1:50.00 in the 200 free.
Roy Burch, an Olympian from Bermuda, posted a 22.68 in the 50 free and 51.14 in the 100 free. The 50 free time missed Darian Townsend’s world record of 22.08 in the 25-29 age group by six tenths of a second. Dion Dreesens, an Olympian from the Netherlands now training in Charlotte, broke the USMS national record for the 18-24 age group in the 400 free with a 3:55.20. Eric Nilsson posted a 3:57.08 in 2011 for the previous standard. Dreesens also swam a 1:48.19 in the 200 free, missing Nick Brunelli’s national record of 1:47.32. (FINA only recognizes times by athletes 25 years and older for Masters world record purposes.)
Madison Kennedy took down the USMS record in the 25-29 age group for the 50 free, posting a 25.97 to beat Andrea Georoff’s 26.03. Kennedy couldn’t reach Sumika Komatsu’s world record of 25.42.
Full results available on Meet Mobile.