Nine RMSC swimmers travelled to Sarasota, Florida on April 21-23 to compete in the USA Swimming Open Water National Championships. The course at Nathan Benderson Park was fast and the weather was perfect for open water swimming. Though none of our swimmers had competed in open water before (they qualified for this meet with their 1000 and 1650 yard pool times), they represented themselves well against some of the best distance swimmers in the Country, and from abroad.
The Senior Nationals 5K event was loaded with the top American swimmers from both NCAA College swimming and club swimming, plus several International competitors representing Japan, Spain, and Sweden. Though our swimmers were amongst the youngest competitors in the race, they swam very well: Brady Begin finished 22nd in 59:37.97, with Toby Barnett just behind in 26th in 1:00:00.32.
Later that day, we had several swimmers compete in the Junior National 7.5K event, contested for the 16-17 age group. Maria Webb had our team’s highest finish of the weekend, taking 11th in the girls’ race in 1:38:12.62. In the boys’ race, Alex Nguyen led the way, finishing 20th in 1:31:10.58. Behind him were Cooper Zakorchemny in 23rd in 1:32:00.22, Evan Mackesy in 29th in 1:32:50.82, Liam Sheeran in 36th in 1:35:30.49, and Brig Barnett in 37th in 1:35.33.49.
Our lone competitor in the 15&Under Junior National 5K was Addison Webb, who finished 14th in 1:09:31.
All of our swimmers exhibited tremendous toughness and stamina to compete at such long distances at such a high level, and the team had a great experience on the trip. Congratulations to our Open Water National Team!
