Speedo Winter Juniors East: Bolles Sweeps Boys Relays despite Thomas Heilman 1:32
Bolles School kicked off the Speedo Winter Juniors East meet Wednesday night in North Carolina by winning both of the boys relays on offer.
The Sharks went 1:27.33 to win the 200 medley relay, then 6:26.00 to claim the 800 freestyle relay. Those were the only two relays contested on the first day of the four-day meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, which saw a massive time drop in one relay, a pair of intriguing races and great performances from Olympian Thomas Heilman and a pair of up-and-coming female stars.
First, though, Bolles. The quartet of Liam Carrington (22.37), Eldad Zamir (24.12), Antoine Destang (21.24) and Andy Kravchenko (19.60) went 1:27.33 to claim the win in the 200 medley. They bested Lakeside Swim Club by .36 seconds for the win. That squad included Thomas Mercer splitting 20.73 on butterfly in a time of 1:27.69, along with Sawyer Tapp, Wilson York and Alex Thiesing.
Nashville Aquatic Club was third, the other team to break 1:28. Kravchenko, Thiesing and Mecklenburg Swim Association’s Michael Rice were the anchors to break 20 seconds.
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Bolles handled business in the 800 free relay, its time of 6:26.00 winning by precisely a second and a half. George Dovellos, Xavier Sohovich, Sascha Macht and Carrington comprised that squad, Sohovich standing out with a time of 1:33.97.
The big swim was provided by Cavalier Aquatics’ Heilman off the front of its A relay. He went 1:32.26. That’s a best time, undercutting by two tenths the time he posted as this meet last year, which was the 15-16 national age-group record. Now 17, Heilman is within a second of the NAG for 17-18 set by Maximus Williamson last year at 1:31.37.
Behind Heilman, Cavalier finished second in the race, thanks to Will Browne, Will Charlton and Brayden King. Cavalier didn’t field a medley relay.
With a 1:35.03 on the end from Norvin Clontz, Mecklenburg finished third in 6:31.07. Dynamo Swim Club was fourth with Carmel (Andrew Shackell 1:37.08 off the front) fifth.
The swim of the night on the girls’ side came in the 800 free relay, with Laker Swim Club dropping a massive seven seconds to go from the sixth seed to the win. Carolina Daher, Lilliana Krstolic, Aidyn Reese and Rylee Erisman went 7:10.93 to win by more than a second over a deep field. Erisman dropped the hammer on the end with a split of 1:42.72. The 15-year-old, who set the national age-group record in the 100 free, could work her way into challenging the 11-year-old 200 free NAG of Katie Ledecky (1:42.03).
The TAC Titans were second in 7:12.27, with Reina Liu, Sloane Whelehan, Nicole Zettel and Mere Whelehan. Lakeside finished third, .07 up on Carmel for that spot. Charlotte Crush went 1:45.56 for Lakeside off the front.
Crush helped Lakeside win the 200 medley relay in 1:39.53, her opening split of 23.56 instrumental in a .13-second win over SwimMAC. Crush’s split, for perspective, would’ve been beaten by only two women in the final of the 200 medley relay at NCAAs last year, one of them Gretchen Walsh. Hannah Schmidt, KC Braeger and Ava Grazziani brought Lakeside home for the win.
SwimMAC was second in a tight race, via Clarke Neace, Elle Scott, Caroline Mallard and Bree Smith. TAC Titans were third in 1:40.12, then .04 back to the Sarasota Sharks, who were .05 up on Bolles. The top seven were blanketed by 1.05 seconds.