Dalton's Young and Dale succeed at big meet

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August 16, 2012

Dalton's Young and Dale succeed at big meet

From Staff Reports sports@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Thu Aug 16, 2012, 07:01 AM EDT

For Taylor Dale and Ethan Young, good finishes and fast times are all but the rule whenever they enter the pool.

It’s been no different this week in Indianapolis at the USA Swimming 2012 Speedo Junior National Championships.

Each of the Dalton High students — they are also members of the Carpet Capital Aquatic Club, a year-round USA Swimming program — placed in the 200-meter backstroke Tuesday, and Dale followed that up with a 13th-place showing in the 100 butterfly Wednesday.

The good showing came against a field of the nation’s top 18-and-unders swimmers fast enough to make the cut for the top-level meet. Dale is a 17-year-old senior, while Young is a 14-year-old freshman.

“This is Ethan’s first Junior National meet, but he made the finals in his first swim, so that was pretty big,” said coach Charles Todd, who oversees both the CCAC Makos and Dalton High’s program. “He did add time in the finals, but he had a pretty decent time getting there. Taylor knocked it out (Tuesday) and dropped four seconds in the 200 backstroke.

“It’s been a good meet, but it’s a fast meet up here.”

In the 200 backstroke, Dale finished 17th with a time of 2 minutes, 4.12 seconds. His time going into Indianapolis was 2:08.36. In the preliminaries, he turned in a 2:05.82 to qualify for the “C” final.

“So he dropped almost another second and a half (in the finals). And the Olympic qualifying time was a 2:04.99, so he’s qualified for (the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials),” said Todd, who accompanied Dale to this year’s U.S. Olympic Trials.

But Dale’s place finish on Tuesday does not tell the story of how fast his time was.

“He was in the C final, the third heat, and he won that heat to finish 17th,” Todd said. “He had the seventh-fastest time, though.”

Young finished 22nd in the 200 backstroke, which he entered with a qualifying time of 2:06.46 before dropping to 2:06.07 in the preliminaries. In the “C” final, he swam a 2:08.62 while competing against a field largely made up of high school junior and seniors, Todd said.

“He was the only 14-year-old boy who made finals,” Todd said.

In the 100 butterfly, Dale entered with a time of 55.43 and swam a 55.82 in the preliminaries, the 13th-best time, to earn a spot in the “B” final. He had a 55.87 for the 13th-place finish.

The backstroke had 88 competitors, and the butterfly had 107. Only the fastest 24 from the preliminaries advanced to the finals.

Both Dale and Young will compete today in the 100 backstroke, which Todd called the strongest event for each.

“Hopefully we have some big swims,” Todd said.

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Dalton's Young and Dale succeed at big meet

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