The Liquid Lightning’s girls? swim team lived up to its name.
The girls recently smashed a 17-year-old state record in the girls 11-12 age group 200 yard medley relay with a time of 1:52.07 at the Michigan Short Course Championships held at the Oakland University Aquatic Center.
Leading the relay was Courtney Connolly, followed by Reese McCorry, Fernanda Comacho-Castro and Claire Abbasse. This is the second state record broken by this relay team, the first being the girls 9 -10 200 yard medley relay in March 2012.
The state record and first-place finish helped Liquid Lightning (LL) finish second overall in the state this season. They earned 12 individual state titles, with 65 finishes in the top16.
LL earned their best finish in the club’s history and was the sixth consecutive time that LL has finished in the top four.
The girls? 11-12 team for the 200-yard free relay also took a state title, consisting of Abbasse, Sydney Stricklin, Haley VanBuskirk, and Fernanda Castro. Additionally, the team of Connolly, Caroline Guglielmetti, Rhianna Hensler and Reese McCorry took third place in the same relay.
This was the second record breaking performance of the weekend for Claire Abbasse, who also broke the record from 2011 for the girls? 50 yd freestyle. She also came in first for the 100 yard freestyle, and second in the 100 yard individual medley, 200 yard IM, 200 yard freestyle and 100 yard butterfly.
Courtney Connolly had tremendous swims with first place finishes in all six individual events: 100 yard IM, 100 yard backstroke, 50 yard butterfly, 50 yard backstroke, 200 yard IM, and 400 yard IM.
Reese McCorry also finished with outstanding swims, placing first in both the 100 yard and 200 yard breaststokes. She also placed in the 50 yard freestyle, 100 yard IM, 200 yard IM, and 50 yard breaststroke.
Emily Shores took third place in the 200yd breast and 100yd breast, and 5th for the 50yd breast.
Fernanda Camacho-Castro took third in the 50 yard butterfly and 100 yard freestyle.
For the boys? 11-12 category, Daniel Reimchen placed in the 50, 100, and 200 yard breaststrokes for LL.
The girls? 10 and under group also had terrific presence at the meet. Meghan Fleury was the state champion in the 50 yard backstroke. She had a third place in the 100 yard backstroke and 50 yard freestyle.
Sarah Cole earned a fourth place in the 100 yard back, fifth place in the 50 yard backstroke and 200 yard IM. Also placing in this age category was Caroline Xu, with a fourth place in the 100 yard breaststroke.
For the boys, Andrew Robertson placed in the top 16 for the 50 yard freestyle, 200 yard freestyle and 50 yard butterfly. Rio Trichler finished in the top 16 for the 50 yard breastroke.