ORLANDO, FL– During the week of March 19-24, eighteen Baylor Swim Club athletes competed in the 2019 National Club Swimming Association (NCSA) Junior National Swimming Championships at the Orlando YMCA Aquatic Center in Orlando, Florida. This is one of the top swimming competitions in the country on an annual basis for swimmers eighteen years old and under. In general, there are over 1700 swimmers in the meet representing over 250 clubs from all over the nation. This will be the twelfth year in a row that Baylor Swim Club will send athletes to this competition, and eighteen athletes are also the largest contingent of Baylor Swim Club athletes to qualify and compete in this meet. Over the course of the four and a half day competition, five Baylor Swim Club team records were broken, the girls finished seventh overall in the team scores, and they took eleventh in the combined team scores.
The Baylor Swim Club had some great performances from seventeen-year-old Cecilia Porter in the breaststroke events. Her time of 1:00.58 in the 100-yard breaststroke qualified her for the USA Swimming Phillips 66 National Championships. She finished third overall in the event and swam a new Baylor Swim Club team record. Porter broke her own team record which was set earlier this year at the TISCA State Championships in Nashville. She will now compete at the Phillips 66 USA Swimming National Championships this summer July 30- August 4 at the Stanford Avery Aquatics Center in Palo Alto, CA. Porter also took down the team record in the 200 breaststrokes finishing ninth in a time of 2:13.36. The previous team record was held by Alison Lusk, which was set back in 2008. Finally, Porter finished with the silver medal in the 50 breaststroke swimming it in a time of 27.66.
The girls 200 Medley Relay of Ellie Waldrep, Cecilia Porter, Addison Smith, and Jewel Gordon finished second overall in the event blasting a time of 1:39.69. This was the fastest 200 Medley Relay is Baylor Swim Club history. The girls also finished 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay (Ellie Waldrep, Jewel Gordon, Jamee Mitchum, Addison Smith) and 11th in the 400-yard freestyle relay (Ellie Waldrep, Addison Smith, Jamee Mitchum, Jewel Gordon). To wrap up the competition on Saturday the 400-yard Medley of Ellie Waldrep, Cecilia Porter, Addison Smith, and Jamee Mitchum finished 6th overall in a time of 3:41.81.
Individual team records were also broken by Addison Smith, Ellie Waldrep, and Alex Borisov. Smith broke her own team record in the 200-yard butterfly swimming a time 2:00.12, which was good for a seventh-place finish overall. She also had top 25 swims in the 500-free (12th), 200 IM (15th), 200-free (16th), 100-fly (19th), and 50-fly (22nd). Sixteen-year-old Ellie Waldrep continued to have an impressive year. She broke her own team record in the 200-yard backstroke finishing 8th in a time of 1:56.76. Waldrep also swam to a fourth-place finish overall in the 100-yard stroke in a time 53.08, which falls below the senior national time standard. On the boy’s side, Alex Borisov took down the team record in the 200-yard breaststroke. He finished 6th overall in the event in a time of 1:58.48. The record was previously held by Mathias Porter, which was set back in 2014. Borisov also finished 12th in the 100-yard breaststroke and claimed 14th in the 200 IM. Senior Jack Kirby was the high points scorer for the Baylor boys. Kirby finished 5th in the 50 back, 6th in the 200 back, 9th in the 100 back, 15th in the 100 free, and took 16th in the 50 free.
Baylor Swim Club athletes competing in finals: Alex Borisov (6th-200 BR, 12th-100 BR, 14th-200 IM, 17th-400 IM), Jewel Gordon (50 BR-25th); Jack Kirby (5th-50 BK, 6th-200 BK, 9th-100 BK, 15th-100 FR, 16th-50 FR), Jamee Mitchum (36th-200 BK), Cecilia Porter (2nd-50 BR, 3rd-100 BR, 9th-200 BR), Addison Smith (7th-200 FLY, 12th-500 FR, 16th-200 FR, 15th-200 IM, 19th-100 FLY, 22nd-50 FLY), and Ellie Waldrep (4th-100 BK, 8th-200 BK, 9th-50 BK, 17th-50 FLY, 20th-100 IM)
