2021 Corvallis Oregon Senior Open
- December 3-5, 2021
- Osborn Aquatic Center, Corvallis, Oregon
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Prelims/Finals
- Full Results on Meet Mobile: “2021 OR CAT Comfort Suites Oregon Senior Open”
The Bend Swim Club in Bend, Oregon has a new head coach this season, but for their star swimmer Diggory Dillingham, his third team in a few years has actually meant the same coach.
That’s because the coach of the Bend Swim Club is his mom, Megan Oesting.
On Saturday, Dillingham broke the Oregon LSC Record in the 50 yard free, and nobody was more surprised than his mom, and coach, Oesting.
Dillingham’s focus meet is next weekend’s Winter Junior Championships – West meet in Austin, but according to Oesting, he was racing this weekend to help his teammates qualify relays for bigger national-level meets.
In his first swim of the weekend, he anchored the medley relay with a 44.80 split while suited and not shaved – and a very conservative relay start.
The team missed cut in that relay, so in his next swim, he led off the 400 free relay to get a split in case it helped the team aggregate a medley relay qualifying time later.
His electric razor ran out of batteries before the session, though he was able to clip (trim shortly, but not shave) one leg, before leading off the 400 free relay in 44.86. That relay swam 3:04.33, which easily qualifies them for the Winter Junior Championships.
He then clipped (but didn’t shave) the other leg and swam a 20.14 on Sunday morning, with what his mom/coach called a “totally jammed turn.” He wasn’t going to swim in finals, but did so to work on fixing that turn.
In finals, he hit the turn dead-on, swimming 19.88 and breaking the Oregon LSC Record for the 15-16 age group. That record was previously set in 2018 by Dutch Olympian Caspar Corbeau when he swam for the Tualatin Hills Swim Club. Corbeau is best known as a breaststroker, but as he showed over the weekend at the Minnesota Invite while swimming for the University of Texas, is more versatile than the average elite breaststroker.
“I actually didn’t realize he was going to go that fast, though, so I was probably the most surprised person in the room when the 19.88 popped up,” Oesting said. “He seems to be ready to race in a few days!”
His previous best time in the 100 free was 45.42 and his previous best time in the 50 free was 20.28.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gK3YQxi9w?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://swimswam.com
Dillingham is in the 4th lane from the bottom in the white cap.
In May, Dillingham set the North Carolina 15-16 LSC Record in the 50 free in long course with a time of 23.03 while Oesting was the head coach of SwimMAC Carolina; in the 2019-2020 season, he set the 50, 100, and 200 yard freestyle records in Iowa while Oesting was the head coach at the Eastern Iowa Swimming Federation. The 50 free mark was 20.67.
For Dillingham, an uncommitted high school junior, that time ranks him 15th-best all-time in the 15-16 age group. In the spring, SwimSwam ranked Dillingham as a “Best of the Rest” qualifier in the sprint free category among class of 2023 recruits. He was the 2021 North Carolina 4A state champion in the 100 free.
Other Highlight swims from the meet:
- Kyle Huang fo the Sunnyvale Swim Club swam 1:50.21 in the 200 fly, which is his best time by almost five seconds. His previous best time of 1:55.03 was set just two weeks ago, and in total this season he’s dropped eight-and-a-half seconds from his best time. He also swam huge best times in the 100 breast (57.98), 200 IM (1:52.91) 400 IM (4:02.21), and 100 back (53.29). He’s an uncommitted high school junior that is flying up the class rankings.
- Cal Poly commit Melia Costa from the Bend Swim Club swam a best time of 1:03.78 in the 100 yard breaststroke for the win.
- After setting a best time in the 100 breaststroke a month ago, Andrew Huang from Lake Oswego Swim Club swam another on Friday with a 55.96. That is a Winter Juniors qualifying time for the Johns Hopkins commit. He also won the 200 IM in the same session in a best time of 1:50.66.
- 14-year old Bend swimmer Kamryn Meskill won the 100 free in 51.21, just ahead of her 15-year old teammate Lexi Williams (51.31) and 17-year old teammate Elli Williams (51.57). Lexi Williams later won the 50 free in 23.92, followed by a 24.21 from 13-year old Mena Boardman for 2nd place.