MCSL History…the Records!
By Contributor Jason Blanken and Reach for the Wall Staff
After reading our 5-part series detailing the top times achieved in each event by the 8 & Unders, 9-10’s, 11-12’s, 13-14’s and 15-18’s, reader and contributor Jason Blanken informed us that he’d done some research to track the progression of records in each event. This is a different perspective than the top times by age group as those lists were sparse on the talent that came through the MCSL in the early decades (60’s,70’s, 80’s & 90’s) due to the talent and speed of the of kids that have come through the MCSL in 2000’s, and 2010 through 2019. In order to track down past record holders, Jason spent some time at the Montgomery County Historical Society to find the handbooks from past years and document who the record holders were for that year. The caveat on these records is that the handbooks only provide the swimmer that holds the record at the end of the year, but not the names of swimmers that may have broken the record during the season only to have another swimmer surpassing that record by the end of the season. Jason commented: “Inevitably I’m sure there are some that are missing that could have been broken in a dual meet and then re-broken at the end of the season by someone else.”
Some interesting stats… the Girls 15-18 50 Butterfly record changed hands the most times, with 23, while the Girls 8 & Under 25 Butterfly has the least with 3! See the full list below, feel free to add a comment if you see a mistake, unfortunately 2020 won’t have any additions 🙁
It would be great if you could do the same thing for the NVSL. Fun read.
Thanks, Jason and others. Great to see the old names and times (and some old teams that sadly don’t exist anymore).
On your last paragraph, two MCT-related potential additions:
-make it 4 times for the 8&U girls’ fly record, as Catherine Mulquin (MCT) broke it with a 17.37 at 2003 All-Stars.
-probably doesn’t count, but at 2013 All-Stars, Caroline Clark (MCT) broke the 15-18 girls’ fly record with a 28.64 in heat 1, then Catherine Mulquin (and Caroline McTaggart) broke it again in heat 2, with Catherine’s 28.53 holding up for a couple of years.
Any review of MCSL history has to begin and end with a discussion of the Rockville Rays. The Rays are ready to rumble in 2021.
Thank you Jason for the outstanding work to recognize the history of the individual records. Now that you’ve done the lion’s share of the work, hopefully MCSL can keep this document up to date. It would be interesting for somebody to report on various “bragging rights” statistics from this document. For instance, what teams had the most records, what individuals had the most records, what records lasted the longest, etc.
It looks like Patty Marks had records in 14 out of 21 possible events (8&U didn’t swim breast/fly back then) throughout her MCSL time. Even more remarkable is that doesn’t even include any 8&U records (although she did win the 8&U free at All Stars). Clay Britt set records in 13 out of 21 events, including a sweep of all 4 strokes in 9-10 and records in all five age groups. Also, both Patty and Clay and Phoebe Bacon set all three IM records. Did any swimmer ever set a record in the same stroke for all 5 age groups? Patty had free and backstroke records in 4 age groups, Susan O’Brien and Phoebe Bacon had backstroke records in 4 age groups.
I only counted records for Patty Marks and Clay Britt because they were prolific record setters during my time as an MCSL swimmer. No bias is intended toward others who may have set more records that weren’t captured in this post. If so, please post those stats posthaste!