Seven members of Canyons Senior Gold Team traveled to Columbus, Ohio to participate in the USA Swimming Junior National Championships.  Coach Jeff reports great results from all seven swimmers with numerous personal bests, team records and more.  Joining the team in Ohio were: Maggie Hanson, Nicole Antoniuk, Michele Duraj, Bob Hwang, Riley Mita, Konrad Antoniuk and Nui Harris. Kearsten Livingstone, a regular at these meets, had to skip the event due to a pre-existing obligation.

Bob Hwang showed his continued dominance in the fly earning return swims in both the 100 and 200 fly.  His bonus final victory broke his own team age group and open record (1:49.31) and put him less than a second away from a Summer National qualifying time.  Earlier Bob finished 18^th in the 100 fly just a few tenths off the team record.

Michele Duraj earned second swims in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke.  Her 15^th place finish in the 100 breast saw her earn a 1:04.03 time and her 200 breast final saw her win the bonus final with a very impressive 2:17.79. Michele’s 200-breast time is just a second off a Summer Nationals qualifying time.

Nicole Antoniuk joined the group as the youngest swimmer knocking off some great swims including an impressive 1650 that broke the team age-group record (previously held by KT Livingstone) and the open record (previously held by Allison Morales) with her 17:11.24.  What makes Nicole’s swim all the more impressive is the fact that she broke the team age group record in the 1000 free on the way to her 1650 time.  Her 1000 split was a blistering 10:20.38, which broke the 15-18 age group record held by Kearsten Livingstone and the team open record held by Jennifer Parmenter and set in 1994.  This is only one of 4 Parmenter records that have been broke since Jennifer set a slew of team records, SCS and National records in the early 90s.

Riley Mita joined Nicole in the record books by taking the team record in the 1650 with his 15.47.95 finish for 28^th place.  The record give Riley the 15-18 age group record and the team open record.

Maggie Hanson got in on the record-breaking action with a strong 400IM swim that saw her shave about a half second off the team record previously held by Jordan Danny.  Maggie’s 4:30.03 is the new 15-18 Canyons age group record.

Bob and Riley combined with Konrad Antoniuk and Nui Harris to destroy their 15-18 age group and team open record in the 800 free relay. Their 6:53.55 shaved almost eight seconds off their previous best last spring.

While the Junior Nationals are an important meet, the Senior Gold swimmers competed untapered due to important swim meets coming up later in the season.