The 2009 TYR Meet of the Champions started last night with the 1500 men's and the 800 women's freestyle events. For those of you who watched the races on swimmingworld.com, you know already, that Brian Via dropped his 16:50.25 seed time by an amazing 46 seconds and placed 6th overall in a time of 16:05.89. This marks his first Junior National cut. Last year at this time, Brian had broken his leg in several places and it is simply amazing what he has been able to do to have such a comeback.
Michael Flach also had a tremendous race by improving his seed time of 16:29.44 by nearly 18 seconds and placing 11th overall in a time of 16:11.73 adding to his multiple Junior National cuts. Matthew Benecki came in 21st, Adam Pennington 24th and John Baldwin 35th. Needless to say, the FISH swimmers were well represented in this kick-off distance event.
On the women's side, the eye was on Kate Ziegler who after a long post Olympic break, tested the competitive waters for the first time last night, facing her former teammate Chloe Sutton in Heat 1. Though Kate came in second, she looked beautiful in the water and everyone was happy to see her compete again.
Let's see what the second day of competition will bring for the Awesome FISH swimmers.
