{"id":440334,"date":"2020-07-18T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=440334"},"modified":"2020-07-18T09:10:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T16:10:19","slug":"16-year-old-claire-curzan-hits-21-51-50-free-at-tac-titans-intrasquad-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/16-year-old-claire-curzan-hits-21-51-50-free-at-tac-titans-intrasquad-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"16-Year-Old Claire Curzan Hits 21.51 50 Free, Faster Than NAG, At TAC Titans Intrasquad Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

16-year-old\u00a0Claire Curzan\u00a0<\/strong>of the TAC Titans in Cary, North Carolina raced a 21.51 50 free SCY at her team’s intrasquad meet on Friday night, reported first by Swim Swam News<\/a>. Curzan’s swim, if sanctioned, would count as a national age group record, breaking her own mark of 21.77 from Junior Nationals in December. This was Curzan’s first swim meet since Speedo Sectionals in March.<\/p>\n

USA Swimming had indicated that although swim meets will be allowed to be held if the clubs complied with social distancing guidelines, that times would not be sanctioned<\/a>. But that rule has since been lifted starting in the month of August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claire Curzan was swimming in the final heat of the 2-hour session, as the only girl in the heat. TAC Titans live-streamed the meet, and the announcer can be heard in the background calling for each heat to report to the blocks, with no more than two heats back there at all times. Holding swim meets in an indoor pool during the COVID pandemic may cause some parents to get nervous, but video evidence (as shown below) that all timers were wearing masks and even some swimmers stretching behind the blocks were doing so as well. Races were done in mixed fashion.<\/p>\n

Claire Curzan just finished her sophomore year of high school at Cardinal Gibbons in North Carolina as she is one of the top recruits in the class of 2022. She is coming off a season where she briefly held the national high school record in the 100 backstroke<\/a>, only for it to being broken a few hours later. She did break the 100 butterfly national high school record<\/a> this season, and will likely swim that race again this weekend at her club’s time trial. Curzan swims for coach\u00a0Bruce Marchionda\u00a0<\/strong>at the TAC Titans, the former head coach at Western Kentucky University.<\/p>\n

15-16 Women’s 50 Free All-Time Rankings:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 21.77, Claire Curzan, 2019<\/li>\n
  2. 21.82, Gretchen Walsh, 2018<\/li>\n
  3. 21.95, Torri Huske, 2019<\/li>\n
  4. 22.04, Simone Manuel, 2013<\/li>\n
  5. 22.04, Kate Douglass, 2016<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Claire Curzan’s swim came in the very last heat of the session. The TAC Titans will be continuing their intrasquad meet all weekend.<\/p>\n