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Aspen Speedos rule home pool

Jon Maletz
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado

ASPEN – It’s been a few years since the Aspen Speedos picked up a win in their summer home meet.

They snapped that streak in dominating fashion June 23 and 24 at the Aspen Recreation Center. In the weekend’s first event, the 10-and-under girls 100-yard freestyle, Maddie Mechling topped the field by more than seven seconds. Right after, Sam Richie cruised to a nearly 13-second victory in the 10 and under 100 freestyle.

The Speedos never looked back. Six different Aspen swimmers – Richie, Maddie and Charlie Mechling, Kelcie Gerson, Lewis Brown and Max Bryant – earned high-point awards in their respective age groups, propelling the hosts to a lopsided win with 882 points.



Montrose (509) and Steamboat Springs (374) rounded out the top three.

“Six of the kids got the highest points totals out of the 10 age groups, and two others had the second-highest total. They’re swimming really well,” Aspen head coach Gordon Gerson said Tuesday. “Performing this well as a team really gets the kids fired up.”




Here are the weekend’s highlights:

• Maddie Mechling and Richie won all nine of their events.

• Charlie Mechling picked up eight wins and a second-place finish in the 200 breaststroke.

• Kelcie Gerson finished first in seven of her nine events and took second and fourth in the other two.

• Bryant won five times and finished second in four other disciplines.

• Davy Brown picked up four wins and logged three seconds and one third.

• August Richie won four events, finished second twice and third once.

• Lewis Brown won the 50 backstroke, 50 freestyle and 25 backstroke and finished second three times.

• Kayla Tehrani’s three wins, two seconds and one third helped her secure the second highest point total among 7- and 8-year-old girls.

• Gracie Brown took first in the 25 freestyle and 25 backstroke and second in the 25 breaststroke.

• Kelli Callahan cracked the top three seven times highlighted by a win in the 500 freestyle.

• Andrew Springer finished first in the 50 breaststroke and second in the 25 backstroke.

• Reed Kulberg won the 100 IM and took third in the 200 IM.

• Cole Petersen won the 100 backstroke, wound up second three times and third twice.

• Lelia Arthur finished second in the 50 backstroke and third in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes.

• Claire Collier picked up three second-place finishes and was third three times.

• Andrew Perley took second twice and third twice.

• Hannah Peterson recorded three top-three finishes highlighted by a runner-up result in the 100 butterfly.

• Fresh off a vacation in Hawaii, Jackson Landis hopped back into the pool and finished third four times.

• Emily Driscoll finished second in the 500 freestyle.

• Thomas Mellenthin took second in the 50 breaststroke.

• Gemma Hill picked up third-place finishes in the 25 breaststroke and 50 backstroke.

• Former Speedos coach Marc Teichman became the first person to break both 50 seconds in the 100 freestyle and one minute in the 100 breaststroke in the ARC pool.

“A lot of pool records were broken – Max and Kelcie were breaking records set by Division I swimmers, Sam was breaking all of his own pool records,” coach Gerson said. “It’s pretty exciting to see how much better they’re getting. … It bodes well as we move into the championship part of the season.”

jmaletz@aspentimes.com