New Faces Emerge at Texas A&M Grand Prix

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 24. NEW talent continues to emerge at the Texas A&M Grand Prix in College Station. While several Olympians continue to blaze through the pool, Saturday night showcased some up-and-coming talent in other events on the second day of competition.

Some of the "new" names in the scene came in the women's 200-meter breaststroke where 15-year-old Micah Lawrence went head-to-head with Longhorn swimmer Alexi Spann. At the wall it was Spann who touched first at 2:33.50 to the Texas Gold swimmer's 2:33.59. Both athletes were more than six seconds ahead of the rest of the field. On the men's side of the 200-breaststroke it was Alabama junior, Vlad Polyakov taking the reins over Scott Spann to touch at a meet and pool record time of 2:16.34.

The 100 butterfly was headlined by two names frequently seen at the forefront of this event, Crocker and Moravcova. The 30-year-old female Mustang had no trouble breaking her pool record en route to winning at 59.63. Texas superstar, Ian Crocker, cruised to victory in the men's event with a comfortable 54.24. That time is nearly three seconds off of his world record.

SMU decided to take charge of the women's 200-meter freestyle. Candace Blackman, Katie Roberts and Jennifer Blackman went 1-2-3 in the event. Candace Blackman dominated the trio by touching the wall in 2:01.35. Likewise on the men's side, Longhorn Aquatics decided it would dominate the freestyle event as well. In perhaps the closest race of the evening, Michael Klueh, Maverick Smalley and Titus Night all came under the flags together and touched at 1:55. It was Klueh who was able to get his hand on the wall first with a 1:55.09.

Klueh wasn't done there as he stepped up a few minutes later and won the men's 400 IM in 4:35.07 for his second victory of the evening. Mark Randall was close behind him touching at 4:35.90.

Zimbabwe Olympian, Kirsty Coventry, swam past everyone in her "silver medal" event, the 400 IM and touched the wall at a comfortable 4:53.28. Julie Wilkinson from Aggie Swim Club touched at 4:58.04.

Competition continues on Sunday in College Station.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x