New Albany Aquatics Club boys relays win three national titles at Junior Championships
The foursome of Tuckor Lambert, Josh Smith, Chase Swearingen and Hudson Williams added three national titles to their already impressive résumés at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships.
Competing for the New Albany Aquatics Club, they began the meet Dec. 7 at the Greensboro Aquatics Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, by winning the 200-yard medley relay in 1 minute, 27.53 seconds — .07 of a second ahead of a team from Lakeside Swim Club in Louisville, Kentucky — and ended it three days later with another close win in the 400 freestyle relay (2:58.42).
In the middle, they captured the 200 free relay championship in 1:20.08.
They won the 400 free relay, in which they were seeded second and dropped 3.48 seconds from their preliminary time, by .23 of a second and the 200 free relay by .77 of a second.
The same group also finished eighth in the 400 medley relay (3:15.92).
Super 12: Central Ohio's top boys swimmers
Super 7: Central Ohio's top boys swimming teams
Williams, a senior at Olentangy Liberty and the defending Division I state champion in the 50 free, is a North Carolina State recruit. Swearingen, a junior at Westerville Central, is a two-time Division I state qualifier who was third in both the 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly a season ago.
Lambert and Smith, who are seniors at Olentangy Orange and New Albany, respectively, will seek their second state berth this season.
Williams also finished third in the 100 backstroke (45.77) and fifth in the 100 free (43.34), and Swearingen was seventh in the 100 fly (47.09).
Other area swimmers who finished in the top eight of their events were Dublin Coffman’s Emily Brown in the 200 individual medley (fourth, 1:57.73) and 400 IM (fifth, 4:13.55), Dublin Jerome’s Libby Grether in the 500 free (fourth, 4:48.16) and New Albany’s Carly Meeting in the 100 back (fourth, 53.55).
Brown and Grether competed for the Dublin Community Swim Team. Meeting, the defending Division I state champion in the 50 free and 100 back and a Florida recruit, swam for NAAC.
Brown is the two-time defending state champion in both the 200 free and 500 free.
dpurpura@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekDave
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: New Albany Aquatics Club boys relays win three national titles
