Blazing Times in the Arizona Sun at Lost Dutchman Meet

By Duncan Scott

TEMPE, Ariz., Feb. 19. THE weekend produced unseasonably warm temperatures around 80 degrees, but the swimming was white-hot in the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center at Arizona State University at the 2002 Lost Dutchman Age Group and Senior meet. The meet was hosted by Tempe Rio Salado Swim Team.

Age Group Highlights
The Scottsdale Aquatic Club won the age group division team title with 497.50 points, followed closely by Sun Devil Aquatics with 454.50. Stanford Covington Aquatics was third with 327.00, Mission Viejo Nadadores finished fourth with 314.00, and the Phoenix Swim Club rounded out the top five with 267.00 points.

Perhaps the most outstanding performer was 10 year-old
Charlie Rimkus, Unattached. Rimkus won six events, just missing the NAG record in each, with an eye-popping all-around performance.

Rimkus took the 100 yard Individual Medley in 1:02.95 (NR is 1:02.47); 100 yard breaststroke in 1:11.32 (NR is 1:10.06); 200 yard IM in 2:14.85 (NR, set in 1982, is 2:12.29), winning by almost 19 seconds; 50 yard breaststroke in 32.97 (NR is 32.16); 200 yard freestyle in 2:00.73p (NR is 1:58.60); and 50 yard freestyle in 25.91 (NR is 24.76).

But Rimkus was by no means the only story. Tara Thomas, SoCal Swimming, won the 11-12 girls' 50 free in 24.09 (NR is :23.15); 50 butterfly in 26.13 (NR is 25.50); and 100 fly in 57.38.

Reno Aquatics' Katy P. Houston took the 13-14 girls'
100 breaststroke in 1:04.02, just missing the National Championship qualifying standard of 1:03.99.

John M. Foster, Unattached, set meet records in every 13-14 boys' event he swam. In the 400 IM he clocked 4:09.05, chopping 8 seconds off the meet mark held by Klete Keller. Keller went on to win Olympic bronze in the 400 free in Sydney.

In the girls' 13-14 400 IM, the top two finishers broke the meet mark of 4:32.25 held by 2000 Olympic champion Misty Hyman. Reno's Leslie K. Ajari touched first at 4:30.36, follwoed closely by Blakeley Bunch (Boulder City-Henderson) at 4:31.50.

Senior Highlights
The Phoenix Swim Club walked off with the team crown in the senior division, scoring 699 points. Sun Devil Aquatics followed with 613. The remaining top ten were: TucsonFord Dealers' Aquatics, third with 519.50;
Reno Aquatic Club, fourth, 475; Stanford Covington Racing, fifth, 462; Scottsdale Aquatics Club, sixth, 352; Boulder City – Henderson, seventh, 240.50; Desert Storm Swimming, eighth, 214; Desert Thunder Aquatics, ninth, 189; and Clovis Swim Club, tenth, 146.

There were many great individual swims, four faster than those turned in at the annual turf war between Arizona State and University of Arizona, swum the same weekend.

In the women's 100 free, Lacey Nymeyer, Tucson Ford, clocked a meet record 50.86, just edging Marshi Smith, Reno, at 50.87. Jenny Vanker, UofA, won the college meet in 51.18.

The 100 back fell to 15 year-old Brooke Bishop, of Stanford Covington, in 55.73, more than a quarter of a second faster than U of A's Beth Botsford's 56.00.

Kalyn Keller, Sun Devil Aquatics, won the 500 free in a meet record 4:51.40, swifter than U of A's Emily Mason, who clocked 4:51.92. In the 1000, Keller scored again, turning in a fine 9:53.80, four seconds better than U of A's Artemis Daphnis (9:57.83).

Other outstanding performances:
Ashley Chandler, SDA, 1000 free in 9:59.60;

Kalyn Keller, SDA, 200 butterfly in 2:02.12;

Takeshi Sasaki, Phoenix Swim Club, 200 fly in 1:49.21

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