Santa Margarita Breaks National High School Record in Girls’ 200 Freestyle Relay at Midseason Meet
Most states have already completed their high school swimming seasons, but California races in the spring, so that means defending national girls’ team champion Santa Margarita could be posting some quick times over the next several weeks. That trend began Tuesday at the Loyola Invitational on the campus of the University of Southern California as the team of Teia Salvino, Asia Kozan, Gracyn Aquino and Teagan O’Dell beat the national high school record in the 200 freestyle relay by more than a second.
The Santa Margarita girls swam a time of 1:29.61 to knock off the 2015 record of 1:30.72 set by Carmel’s Veronica Burchill, Claire Adams, Kendall Smith and Trude Rothrock. O’Dell led the way for Santa Margarita with a blistering 21.81 anchor split, and the team came up just a half-second short of the USA Swimming 15-18 National Age Group record of 1:29.04 (set by a team including now-superstar Kate Douglass in 2018).
Watch video of the race below:
Last season, the team of Macky Hodges, Salvino, O’Dell and Justina Kozan broke Carmel’s long-standing national record in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:14.80. At this meet, the same team that broke the 200 free relay record (albeit in a different order) raced to a time of 3:16.84 in the longer relay, hinting that they will again challenge the national mark come championship season. O’Dell anchored that relay in 47.90. Individually, O’Dell posted superb times of 1:57.32 in the 200 IM and 59.73 in the 100 breaststroke Tuesday while Asia Kozan went 1:45.82 for the win in the 200 free and Salvino swam a time of 22.90 in the 50 free.
While the Santa Margarita girls had little trouble in earning a team victory, the boys’ team earned a hard-fought 79-78 triumph over Loyola. Hunter Cehelnik led the way for SMHS with wins in the 200 free (1:38.65) and 100 free (44.68) while Daniel Verdolaga won the 100 fly in 47.75 and Nathan Wu swam a time of 55.80 to win the 100 breast. As for Loyola, standout senior Rex Maurer posted a pair of stellar individual swims, winning the 200 IM in 1:45.49 and the 500 free in 4:29.31.