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Twelve national records have fallen in the first two days of competition at the Central American and Caribbean Swimming (CCCAN) Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The host country has supplied three, including two of the nearest brushes with an Olympic A cut.
Both 200 individual medley records were rewritten by event winners Thursday night. Jarod Arroyo won the men’s event in 2:00.61, which improves his Puerto Rican record of 2:00.85. It gets the Arizona State swimmer within a second of the A standard (1:59.61). Second was countryman Miguel Cancel in 2:01.63.
Kristen Romano; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Kristen Romano is in a similar position on the women’s side. The Ohio State veteran set a best time of 2:12.86, more than four seconds faster than her seed time, which wasn’t even a B cut. The Olympic A standard is 2:12.56, which she came agonizingly close to. Her national record augments marks in the 400 IM, 200 backstroke, 200 freestyle and 400 free.
The other Puerto Rican record came via Yeziel Moralez in the men’s 50 back. He twice lowered the mark, going 25.66 in prelims and then 25.52 in the final to win easily. The hosts swept the back events, with Celismar Guzman winning the women’s event in 29.60 over countrywoman Linzel Ortiz but just six hundredths of a second.
The only A cut of the meet was supplied by Venezuela’s Alfonso Mestre. The University of Florida swimmer set a national record in the 800 free 7:50.81 off the front of the 1,500 free on Wednesday. That time, supplied ahead of FINA’s official cutoff for qualification to Tokyo, should get Mestre there, as it well undercut the A standard of 7:54.31.
El Salvador saw four records rewritten at the CCCAN Championships. Elisa Funes was second in the 100 breast in 1:13.89, to take down a record. She got within .23 seconds of Marissa Lugo, the Puerto Rican swimmer who dropped more than five seconds from prelims. Funes also went 2:40.66 in the 200 breast to lower her national mark Friday. She was .47 behind Lugo for silver in that event.
Celina Marquez set a Salvadoran record in the 50 butterfly at 27.69 seconds, finishing second to Madelyn Moore of Bermuda, who set a national record in 27.12. (Moore would win Friday’s 100 free in 56.75.) Isabella Alas went 2:21.84 to set the national mark in the women’s 200 IM.
Haiti’s Davidson Vincent set a national mark in the men’s 50 fly, winning the event in 24.74. He just edged Carlos Vasquez of Honduras by a quarter-second, his 24.98 a national mark. Fellow Honduran Julimar Avila set a record in the women’s 200 IM at 2:20.73. Avila also won the 200 free on Friday, outdueling Guzman by .16 seconds.
Among the other winners at the CCCAN Championships, which hosts races from age-group on up, was 33-year-old Edgar Crespo. The Olympic B cut holder from Panama went 1:02.20 to win the men’s 100 breast, within a second of his national record. Second was countryman Tyler Christianson, who would ease to victory in Friday’s 200 breast.
Aruba’s Mikel Schreuders picked up a pair of wins. He took the men’s 200 free in 1:53.16, .12 ahead of El Salvador’s Marcelo Acosta. He also won the 100 free in 50.37.
The men’s 800 and women’s 1500 are new events and I think the FINA A cuts win those events are somewhat softer than traditional events