Before 2019 came to close yet another CARIFTA region swimmer was re writing the pages of his school’s record book. That swimmer was Adriel Sanes of the University of Denver. Competing at the Princeton/Big Al Invitational .He took victories in the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke in NCAA B qualifying times.He also won all the relays he swam in. It would be the 200 freestyle where he would have his name in history as his greatest success.In the very first final of the meet that ran from December 6 to 8 saw the Pioneers A team of Cameron Auchinachie 19.17,Sid Farber 18.73,Jackson Gainer 20.07 and Sanes 19.43 beating the field by over a second to win in a time of 1:17.40. That was just off the school record of 1:17.22 and the NCAA A cut of 1:17.17.
With the team so close to the NCAA standard the night before the squad came together to go for that automatic invitation in Indiana in late March.They would not disappoint and would achieve their goal of stamping their ticket .They also set a new school record and put the Pioneers fourth in the country.
Photo courtesy of denverpioneers.com
| 2019 | Split | 2018 | Split | |
| First leg | Cameron Auchinachie | 19.19 | Sid Farber | 19.40 |
| Second leg | Sid Farber | 18.77 | Cameron Auchinachie | 19.10 |
| Third leg | Cy Jager | 20.05 | Anton Loncar | 19.31 |
| Fourth leg | Adriel Sanes | 19.08 | Stephen Calkins | 19.41 |
| Total Time | 1:17.09 | 1:17.22 |
In the following event the 200 yard individual medley the junior continued his personal best progression. After lowering his personal standard from 1:48.30 in November to 1:47.95 in the morning he went even faster in the night’s final. He went 1:47.23 for a fifth place finish , not too far from the NCAA B time of 1:46.77.It also doubles as the second fastest in school history.With that swim Adriel is now the fastest swimmer ever from the US Virgin Islands of all time .He bettered the time of 1:47.35 set by 6’6 Olympian George Gleason (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004) in a dual meet against Harvard on February 3, 2001. Gleason, who was the Yale Captain that year would win the silver medal at the Ivy League conference Championships that year.
Photo courtesy of att.com
There would be another clear victory in the 400 yard medley relay as the Pioneers team of Neil Watchler backstroke 48.27,Cy Jager breaststroke 53.20,Sanes butterfly 47.35 and Auchinachie 42.16 got the better of the field with a winning time of 3:10.98 .They had a winning margin of 2 seconds plus.
The next day the Pioneers also took the shorter medley relay.In the 200 relay Auchinachie backstroke 21.10, Jager breaststroke 23.85,Sanes butterfly 21.01 and Farber 18.67 put together yet another clinical win . They won by over 3 seconds with a winning total effort of 1:24.63.
After batting for two years with a personal best of 54.00 in the 100 yard breaststroke ,the breakthrough came in the morning heats as he had splits of 25.35 and 28.18 to take half a second off his time to lead the preliminaries with a 53.50 effort. It was also under the NCAA Division I B cut of 54.27. In the final teammate Jager made him work for the win . Cy went out in a blazing 24.57 , the fourth fastest time in the NCAA division so far this season. Sanes was almost a half a second behind with his split of 25.05. Adriel split 28.52 and used all of his 6’3 frame to reel in his teammate for a narrow victory 53.57 to Jager’s 53.60. It would be no surprise of the speed of Cy as he is the son of the legendary sprinter US Olympic Gold medallist Tom Jager. Tom broke the world record six times in his career and holds the record for having the global mark for the second longest time period from March 24,1990 with his time of 21.81 to June 1,2000.The record was broken by another sprinting legend Russian Olympic Gold medallist Alexander Popov 21.64
The final day of the meet he put himself on course for the breaststroke double and yet another personal best with a morning time of 1:56.98.His personal best and school record entering the meet stood at 1:56.24.
He would not disappoint as in the final as he lead from gun to the final touch pad. He took the victory by over 2 seconds stopping the clock in 1:55.95.
| 2019 | 2018 | |
| First 50 | 25.78 | 25.54 |
| Second 50 | 29.85 | 29.19 |
| Third 50 | 29.55 | 30.11 |
| Fourth 50 | 30.77 | 31.40 |
| Total time | 1:55.95 | 1:56.24 |
Sanes capped the competition in the best possible way anchoring the A team to victory in a new school record and NCAA B time of 2:51.99
The team of Auchinachie 42.60 ,Farber 41.99,Hugo Sykes 43.48 and Sanes 43.92 won by over a second.
| 2019 | Split | 2018 | Split | |
| First leg | Cameron Auchinachie | 42.60 | Cameron Auchinachie | 43.43 |
| Second leg | Sid Farber | 41.99 | Stephen Calkins | 42.60 |
| Third leg | Hugo Sykes | 43.48 | Ryno Bornman | 43.96 |
| Fourth leg | Adriel Sanes | 43.92 | Sid Farber | 42.45 |
| Total Time | 2:51.99 | 2:52.44 |
The Pioneer Men finished third in the male standings with 688.50 points.Second went to Brown with 743.5 points and Princeton topped the seven team rankings amassing 887.50 points.
Draftingthecaribbean got in touch with Adriel and he gave his thoughts on a very successful mid season meet
“Our first invite of the season and we were determined to qualify for NCAA. We felt ready as we’ve been training hard for this weekend.We swam Friday night 200 yard freestyle relay and got the NCAA B with a time of 1.17.40, but that was not enough for us.We decided on Saturday after prelims, to time trial as we knew what each of ushad to swim to get the NCAA A time and we did it.We were so excited and all the DU Parents gave us a lot of support by cheering loud to get us motivated.It was the best moment for the relay team.
After making this time, we were so motivated, that making the NCAA B time for 200 and 400 Medley Relay felt much easier and smooth. My 200 Breast was on the last night and want it to finish strong and have best time than what I previously had and I did make best times on both my 100 and 200 Breast.It was a really successful meet for me and my DU Teammates.Now we will train hard to be ready for Conference and then go to NCAA and our goal is to make top 3 in 200 free relay”.
Sanes is a part of the current wave of CARIFTA elite swimmers looking to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games .He will be working towards the 200 metre breaststroke as his main event .He will also look towards the 100 breaststroke to make the qualifying mark to Asia. He competed in the long course meet and swam 2:18.90 for the 200 breaststroke.That time represents his best in season time ever .It augurs well for him to get past his current national record of 2:16.90 set at this year’s PAN AM Games in Lima and go after the Olympic B time of 2:14.26.
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