ORLANDO, Florida, March 22. TODAY in the timed finals of the 400-yard freestyle relay at the NCSA junior national championships, the four swimmers who recently broke the national high school record in the event with a 2:59.76 chased the USA Swimming 15-18 national age group record of 2:56.73.
Sam Skinner, Reed Malone, Jack Mangan and Max Grodecki posted a 2:58.20 in today's race, falling short of the national age group mark set in 2011 by SwimMAC-Carolina, but improving on their swim from last month's Illinois state high school championships. The time, however, will not count as a national high school record, because it was not contested at a sanctioned high school meet.
1 New Trier Swim C-IL 'A' 3:01.72 2:58.20
21.52 44.67 (44.67)
1:06.17 (21.50) 1:29.79 (45.12)
1:51.14 (21.35) 2:14.73 (44.94)
2:35.58 (20.85) 2:58.20 (43.47)
The key improvement on this relay appears to be the leadoff leg, as Skinner's swim bettered the 46.03 he swam last month. Malone's second leg and Grodecki's anchor leg were also faster than last month.
Watch the race in the video player below. (Editor's note: Though the video announces the swim as a national record for the 17-18 age group, the team does not qualify for that mark, as two of the swimmers on the team are 16 years old.)
Shortly after the race, New Trier Swim Club head coach Bob Kiser talked about preparing the foursome to swim well in Orlando, a month after peaking at the Illinois state meet:
SwimmingWorld.TV is streaming all finals races live on the Internet, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern each night. The cost to watch all final sessions will be $24.95. You can order your ticket to watch all the Finals by going to Buy Ticket today! Note: This event will cannot be viewed on iOS or Android devices.
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