New England Swimming
13 –19 Age Group Championships
March 1-4, 2007
Zesiger Center, MIT, Cambridge MA
Where to begin? Well, there are 72 teams registered in New England Swimming. 64 of them had swimmers at this weekend's 13-19 Championship at MIT. Kingfish placed 16th, finishing with 361 points. Max Butler, off to UMass Amherst in the fall, led the charge by finishing first in the men's overall high point award.
But he had lots of help.
On Friday night, at MIT's Zesiger Aquatic Center, the Kingfish men's 400 yard free relay of Brian McGuiness (49.3), Clarke Madigan (49.0), Brian Keane (50.3), and Max Butler (47.7) placed second in New England, finishing with a time of 3:16.48, just 2 seconds off qualifying for Junior Nationals! But that is only the beginning.
Kaitlin Buckley recorded a personal best time in her 200 free (2:07.45), as did Patrick O'Neal (1:55.21). That event proved to be great for the Kingfish as Clarke Madigan (1:52) and Brian Keane (1:50.8) also posted best times. Max Butler improved his seed time by 2 seconds, finishing in 1:46.1 at the evening Championship Finals.
Then it was two speedy swims in the 100 breast (Barry Su 1:10) and 100 fly (Max Butler 53.6). Max qualified for Sectionals for the first time in that event and placed 4th overall. Whoever said he could only do backstroke???
In the 400IM, Pat O'Neal crushed his best time, dropping 8 seconds to finish in 4:36.6. What an amazing swim!!! Jess Perry achieved her goal in that event also, going way under 5:00 with a 4:54.99. Clarke Madigan chopped 4 seconds off his best time for a 4:33.1. But all eyes were on Max, when he paced a 4:15 in his morning swim, then came back at finals to Wow the crowd with a 4:13.2.
The relays were extra exciting. Aside from the huge second place pulled off by the boys, the 13-14 girls relay of Kaitlin Buckley, Sarah Goldberg, Kendra Perry, and Erin Campbell (1:01.0) raced to beat their seed time, finishing in 4:07. Not to be outdone, the 13-14 boys team of Tom Cheever, Cam Crowell, Barry Su, and Pat O'Neal impressed many with their 3:46.
This morning Pat O'Neal crushed his 200 fly time by 6 seconds, going a 2:14 and qualifying him for finals tonight. He tells me he can go even faster. I know he's right. Barry Su turned in a best time in the 50 free, 25.05 seconds. Jess Perry also recorded a personal best in 26.9. Clarke Madigan broke 23 for the first time from a flat start in his 50 free, finishing in 22.9 seconds.
It's always nice for a coach to see his team excel in the distance events. This generally confirms that the hard work from the season paid off. That was very much the case in the 500 freestyles this morning. All four of our competitors turned in best times. Jess Perry went a 5:19. Pat O'Neal went 5:08 and he knows he'll be crushing that time tonight. Brian Keane clipped 5 seconds off his best time with a 5:04, and finally we can say that Clarke Madigan has broken 5 minutes. He's been flirting with it for over a year now, and this morning he went a 4:55, to earn him a second swim in that tonight.
Saturday's finals shaped up like this.
Possibly the performance of the meet was Pat O'Neal, who dropped 6 seconds from his 200 fly in the morning. Then he came back at finals and carved another 7 seconds off at night to finish with a 2:07. Then, minutes later, he dropped his 100 back time back under a minute, finishing in 59.3.
In the men's 100 yard back, the Kingfish tallied up a 2nd and 3rd place finish in the event by Max and Clarke Madigan, who lowered his sectional qualifying time to 54.2. In the 500 free, Pat went another best time, 5:07. Jess Perry's 500 free was a great swim for her, 5:19, crushing her heat. Then tonight, Pat was back at it again. His morning 200 back swim of 2:12 was essentially the same as his best. But not nearly satisfied, his swim tonight was a 2:06. Not to shabby for a 14 year old.
Jess Perry's 1650 yard free bettered her goal for herself. She finished in 18:32, holding mostly 1:07s for her 100s. Max's 200 back time bettered his morning swim by 4 seconds (1:55). Brian Keane broke 51 in the 100 free for the first time from a flat start, finishing in 50.7. Then he went a best time in his 200IM, finishing in 2:08.
The relays featured some first time 13 and over championship swimmers in Avery Riddle, Krista Librett, and Drew Husted. Without them, we would not have had relays and we would not have had as many points, and would probably not have finished in 16th place overall. I'd be silly if I didn't mention that Erin Campbell chopped 7 seconds off her best 100 breaststroke in the relay, going a 1:16.6. Amazing swim Erin!!!