21 Senior Elite swimmers traveled to Oklahoma for the 22nd Annual Chesapeake Pro/Am Elite meet held in Oklahoma City, December 19-22, 2013. Dad's Club finished 8th overall (women 6th) out of 70 swim teams from across the nation, including power houses such as Mission Viejo. Here are daily digests of their achievements.
Sunday
On the last day of competition it was our distance swimmers who set the pace for what was to be our best showing of the meet.The streak of lifetime bests began with Riley Carson, whose efforts in the 1,650yd earned him his first Sectional cut and a top 10 finish at the meet. Carson was quickly followed by Christina Moreno, who also participated in the 1,650. Her time of 18:06.91 was a lifetime best by 6 seconds.
The finalists of the day built on the momentum Carson and Moreno had initiated. First to take to the water were our 200 backstrokers Elizabeth Jordana (2:04.76) and Jack Calderwood (1:54.30). Both achieved a personal best and a new NCSA Junior National qualifying time in the process. In the following two events Alexandra Buscher achieved back to back best times with a win in the 100 free B final (51.21) and a 3rd place finish in the 200 fly championship final (2:02.40). Annie Miller, Meghan Parsons, and Cooper Wozencraft turned in the 6th, 7th and 8th consecutive lifetime personal best. All three competed in the 50 fly (this year’s Chesapeake’s stroke sprint event). Miller’s time of 26.28 is a new team record in the Open division. The 200 free girls A relay of Annie Miller, Alexandra Buscher, Elizabeth Jordana, and Briana Burns broke a 20 year old team record set back in 1993. Their performance of 1:36.33 was good enough for a 2nd place finish. Dad’s Club All Time Top 10
Saturday
First to dive-in in the 200 IM B final was Elizabeth Jordana whose efforts earned her a season best and a 6th place finish. Jordana was joined by Maddie Robinson and Cooper Wozencraft in the 100 backstroke. Both Jordana and Wozencraft achieved the NCSA Junior National standard in the event. For Robinson this was the first individual final of the competition. Our lone sprinter of the evening was Annie Miller, who managed to secure a place in the B final. Her time of 23.86 was a lifetime best and good enough for 5th place in the heat. Our last individual swimmer to take to the water was Alexandra Buscher. Her season best of 4:56.01 in the 500 free moved her up a spot to 5th from her prelim ranking. The notable prelim swims of the day go to Jack Calderwood and chaperon, swimmer, and Dad’s Club parent Shawn Jones. Jones dropped a whopping 12.94 seconds in the 200 breast, which moved him up from the 101st rank to 60th place. Calderwood also moved up quite a few spots of his own with a 2.36 second drop in the 100 backstroke (56th-31st). His time of 53.82 was a NCSA Junior B standard. Dad’s Club All Time Top 10
Friday Notable swims from the prelims came from some of our breaststrokers. Elena Skaribas (1:12.26), Sara Jane Gage (1:12.55), Grant Kirchhofer (1:03.04) and Lexie Mueller (1:14.37) all achieved lifetime best in the 100. After a 2 second dive delay Mueller amazingly still dropped a .50 from her previous time. Alexandra Buscher set the pace for the evening session with her 3rd place finish in the championship final of the 200 freestyle. Her time of 1:47.07 breaks her old team records in the 15-16 and open divisions. This swim also ranks her 51st in the 15-16 All Time Top U.S performances. Finishing in 4th place in the C final of the 100 fly was Elizabeth Jordana with a time of 57.57. Also competing in a C final was Briana Burns who finished 3rd with a season best of 1:07.20 in the 100 breast. Cooper Wozencraft was our busiest swimmer of the night. Wozencraft competed in the C final of the 200 freestyle and 100 fly. He then lead off the 400 free relay with a personal best of 48.43. His efforts earned him three more spots in the Dad’s Club top 10. Dad’s Club All Time Top 10
Thursday The relays got us off to a good start with both our A & B girls 200 medleys placing in the top 16. The A relay finished 5th while the B relay finished in 15th place. Maddie Robinson's and Alice Read's 50 backstroke leadoff times were fast enough to rank them in our All Time Top Ten list for the Open division. Robinson now ranks 3rd with a time of 27.57 and Read ranks 7th with a time of 28.79. Also making some club history in the 50 backstroke leadoff for the boys was Cooper Wozencraft who now holds the Open team record in the event with a time of 24.19. The boys relay ended up slipping into 14th place overall. Alexandra Buscher, Christina Moreno and Riley Carson represented us well in the 1,000yd distance. Buscher and Moreno had solid season bests. Buscher’s time of 10:10.19 seconds placed her 4th overall, our highest placing of the night. Carson’s 7 seconds drop got him under the 10 minute barrier with a time of 9:55.68. |  Meghan Parsons preparing for the 50 fly Christina Moreno swimming the 1650, with Dylan Presswood counting laps Elena Skaribas, Annie Miller, and Briana Burns psyching up before the 400 free relays  Photos by Briana Burns, Erika Stephenson, Riley Carson and others. |
