Originally posted on swimswam.com.

The seal on the new world of competitive swimming in the United States has been broken. On Friday morning, Spartans Aquatics, based out of the Greater Atlanta Christian School in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, held what is believed to the first USA Swimming sanctioned meet in the Eastern US since the nation began reopening from the coronavirus pandemic.

USA swimming announced last month that they would sanction meets in July, but that times swum at those meets would not be allowed as qualifying standards beyond the LSC level.

The Spartans Aquatic Club, led by 11-time NCAA All-American Karl Krug, are taking advantage of the newly-loosened restrictions to run a sanctioned intrasquad meet this weekend.

Krug says that he received information from the Southern Zone that this was the first USA Swimming sanctioned meet in the Zone, and that the Eastern Zone has confirmed that it has also not had any other meets. Another scheduled to begin in nearby Macon, Georgia on Saturday.

Update: There was, however, a small sanctioned time trial held in Las Vegas by the Sandpipers swim team on Monday of this week. The Sandpipers are the home of US National Teamer Erica Sullivan, who didn’t participate in the time trial. Results for that meet are here.

Utah Valley Aquatics also hosted an intrasquad meet in Provo, Utah on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Results for that event are on Meet Mobile under “BYUVRays July Intrasquad.”

SAFETY PROTOCOLS

Beginning on Friday, swimmers have been broken up into different sessions that follow limits of 50 people in the building at a time.

The club has been back in the water training since May 14, when restrictions in Georgia were eased allowing pools to reopen.

• No more than 50 people in the building
• No spectators allowed at this time, we are live streaming the meet for our families to watch.
• We encourage all our athletes to wear a mask
• Each person will be screened and their temperature will be taken at the door before they enter
• Each swimmer is assigned a number around the pool that is 6 feet or more from others.
• Swimmers stay at their numbers until given further instructions
• 4 people per lane with at least 6 feet of distance
• When a swimmer completes an event they wait until the last person finishes and then the entire heat will do 3 laps easy and exit the pool at the other end and report back to their number and designated area.
• Once they have completed their events they will clean up their area and exit the building from the exit door located just off the pool deck.
• Restrooms are limited to 1 person at a time with locker rooms closed until further notice.
• All coaches, officials, and timers will wear a mask at all times while in the building.
• After the session has been completed the staff will do a deep clean of the pool area and disinfect all frequently touched surfaces.

RESULTS

Among the highlight swims of the first day of the meet was a 45.65 in the 100 yard free from Kamal Muhammad. Muhammad, who is entering his senior year of high school, announced 2 weeks ago that he would be taking a gap year and enrolling at Virginia in the fall of 2022 as their first commit in that class.

He swam a 45.65 in the 100 yard free on Friday morning, which is about a second short of his lifetime best of 44.58 in the event. His 45.65 is also the fastest he’s been outside of a championship meet (his previous non-championship best was in November of 2018 at 46.28).

He also swam 51.05 in the 100 back for 2nd place, which is a new lifetime best for him, undercutting his previous best of 51.38.

The winner of that 100 back was Peter Sacca in 50.47, which is a lifetime best for him as well. His previous best time of 51.75 was done at the Georgia Open in early February. Sacca is an uncommitted rising high school senior.

Other Highlights from Friday’s Swims:

• Rising sophomore at Auburn Aidan Stoffle, who is back training in Georgia during the quarantine, swam 46.46 in the 100 free and 53.68 in the 100 back.
• 12-year old Rakel Becraft improved her best time in the 100 free from a 1:08.04, done in January of 2019, to a 59.60 on Friday.
• 16-year old Colton Mcgrady finished 3rd in the 100 free behind Muhammad and Stoffle in 46.99. That was two-tenths short of his lifetime best.