2024 NW Sectionals Recap
2024 NW Sectionals Recap
On March 14-17th, 30 IST athletes and Coaches traveled to King County Aquatic Center for the 2024 NW Sectionals Championship.
Sectionals represents the culmination of our Short Course Season. Athletes have spent months preparing in practice, refining race strategies at meets, and sharpening for this championship meet experience. As this was a championship meet, the top 32 athletes in each event returned for Finals. IST athletes achieved 16 individual Finals swims throughout the weekend! A list of each athletes’ Finals swim can be found in the “meet stats” section of this recap.
Several athletes achieved new cut times at the Futures and Junior National level while breaking team records:
Max Guo swam a Futures time in the 200BR with a 2:29.06. Max later returned to finals where he placed 31st in the 200BR!
Aaron Bell broke a seven year old Team Record in the 15-18 50FR (formerly held by Jacob Leahy) in the 50FR with a time of 24.13 during Prelims. Aaron returned to Finals where he placed 8th and broke the 50FR Open Team Record with a time of 23.98! This time was also a Winter Juniors time, Aaron’s first!
Owen Stauffer lowered his own Team Record in the 100BK with a time of 59.34 in prelims. Owen returned to Finals where he placed 15th while swimming a Futures cut. Owen also broke his own Team Record in the 100FL with a time of 59.18!
Tyler Lewis broke a nineteen year old Team Record in the 15-18 100FL record (formerly held by James Schuyleman) with a time of 57.15 in Finals. Tyler placed 25th in the event!
Multiple team relay records were broken as well. Daniel Lazar, Tyler Lewis, Nathan Headon-Weeks, and Aaron Bell broke a ten year old 200FR relay record with a time of 1:38.18!
Aaron Bell, Alex Hogan, Tyler Lewis, and Nathan Headon-Weeks broke an eight year old 400FR relay record with a time of 3:37.31!
The combined effort, excitement, and excellence of every IST athlete buoyed the team to a 16th place finish at Sectionals with a team total of 190 points!
