16-year-old Claire Curzan continues to tear apart the record books this summer with a 49.73 in the 100 butterfly on Saturday at the TAC Titans Invitational. Curzan became the youngest swimmer to ever break 50 seconds in the event as she moved to fifth all-time with her swim, just off the fastest time in history at 49.26 by Louise Hansson and Maggie MacNeil. Curzan was also not far off the American record of 49.38 set by Erika Brown earlier this year.
She was out in 23.07 and back in 26.66, as she finished ahead of Abby Arens (53.54) of the Marlins of Raleigh, who is the other team present at this socially distanced meet.
Curzan broke her own national age group record that she set earlier this summer at 50.03 as she has not missed a beat from the coronavirus pandemic that has kept a lot of swimmers out of the water for the majority of the summer.
16-year-old Tate Bacon won the boys 100 butterfly with a 48.68 ahead of Mitchell Stroud (49.48) and Russell Exum (49.66). Curzan would have tied for fourth in the boys race with Ryan Silver.
Curzan returned later in the session to win the 100 back at 51.42.
Other winners on the night included Arens in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.20), Jorge Murillo in the 100 breast (53.10), and Michael Cotter in the 200 freestyle (1:36.41)/
Women’s 100 Butterfly All-Time Rankings
- 49.26, Louise Hansson, 2019
- 49.26, Maggie MacNeil, 2019
- 49.38, Erika Brown, 2020
- 49.43, Kelsi Dahlia, 2016
- 49.73, Claire Curzan, 2020
- 49.97, Katie McLaughlin, 2019
- 50.01, Natalie Coughlin, 2002
- 50.05, Farida Osman, 2017
- 50.10, Rachel Komisarz, 2007
- 50.19, Olivia Bray, 2019
Women’s 100 Butterfly All-Time Rankings (15-16)
- 49.73, Claire Curzan, 2020
- 51.08, Beata Nelson, 2014
- 51.29, Torri Huske, 2019
- 51.48, Olivia Bray, 2017
- 51.63, Regan Smith, 2018
Excerpt from story earlier this summer.
Claire Curzan had been out of the water for nearly six weeks after the pandemic hit before TAC Titans was able to get back to the pool to train. With USA Swimming recommended guidelines in place, Curzan has been training just two hours a day at 9 – 11 a.m. as well as three dryland sessions a week since May. She had taken on running during her time out of the water, and was able to swim in backyard pools while strapped to a tether.
During the quarantine, the main focus was stroke maintenance rather than any aerobic work, so when she got back to full training she wouldn’t feel like a fish out of water.
“I definitely think the tether stuff really helped, keeping my feel for the water and making sure my strokes were technically pretty good. Getting back into the full practices transition wasn’t that bad.”
She is just a couple weeks away from the start of her junior year of high school at Cardinal Gibbons in Raleigh, North Carolina as she will be a huge commodity wherever she decides to commit as she has begun the recruiting process this summer.
Curzan will also be a popular upset pick to make next year’s Olympic team if she continues on this trajectory. Because of this new favorite status in the 100 butterfly ahead of next summer, she will make some adjustments in the classroom to ensure she is staying on top of her training.
“With the Olympic delay, we were set up with additional time to practice her sophomore year and had it mapped out and then this COVID thing happened,” Claire’s father Mark Curzan said. “They’ve been really understanding at Cardinal Gibbons in Raleigh and taking some pass/fail classes over the summer to lighten the load for junior year.
“Bruce (Marchionda) has a master plan in place for her to sleep in, so that’s been a refreshing thing to do which is nice, and she loves her sleep, to have a lighter load junior year, still with AP classes, to have some flexibility. The school has been really accommodating with it to make this cycle to work in her favor.”
Way to go Claire!!!!!
Jose Juan De Jesus
Brittany Suits Jeff Heurung
Amazing!!!
You rock Claire Bear. Love you much! Mimi & Papa