Avon Swim Club finishes second overall out of 74 teams at USA Swimming Speedo Sectionals

The Avon Swim Club might be small, but it’s mighty nonetheless.

The club sent seven athletes — five boys and two girls — to the Speedo Sectionals in Boise, Idaho last month. The boys won all five relays they contested, racking up 737 points to place second overall out of 74 teams. The Spokane Waves won the overall title.

“We don’t have the depth a lot of those big teams have,” head coach Tom Kiddoo said. “But our boys are at a place where they’re all swimming so fast that together they were able to make huge strides in this meet.”

Madison Beidal and Paisley Thompson represented Avon on the girls side, racking up 29 total points to place 32nd as a team.

USA Swimming divides the country into 59 Local Swimming Committees (LSC). Those LSCs are put into four zones: Eastern, Central, Southern and Western. Swimmers ages 14 and under compete in zone championships each summer. Sectionals, the first tier of championship meets under USA Swimming (with Futures, Junior Nationals, National Championships and Olympic Trials being the next levels, respectively), act as zonal championship meets for senior swimmers. While swimmers compete under the name of their LSC at zonal championships, they race for their club at sectionals.

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Kiddoo said his kids were “locked in and focused, supporting each other and pushing each other” throughout the four-day competition, which was held at the Idaho Central Aquatic Center from March 12-15.

“A lot of times you’ll see a kid have one or two best times at a big meet like this, but these kids were setting personal bests in prelims and then beating them again in finals that same day,” he added. “So, it was just absolutely remarkable to watch.”

The boys won the 200, 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays as well as the 200 and 400-yard medley relays. Tyson Boyd anchored several of those and competed in six individual events as well. The sophomore wound up third overall out of more than 200 athletes in the overall individual scoring standings.

“He just really stepped up,” Kiddoo said of Boyd, whose best events are the 100 and 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley. His older brother, Breck Boyd — who has committed to swim next year at UC Santa Barbara — was third in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. He also won gold in the 100 and 200 back, dropping 0.88 seconds off his previous best in the longer distance.

“Just phenomenal races,” Kiddoo said. “All the hard work he’s been putting in really came out at that meet.”

Fellow senior Brian Molloy owned his trademark breaststroke events, shaving 2.68 seconds off his 200-yard time to place 13th. He also finished sixth in the 100 breaststroke and was 9th in the 200 free. Sophomore Andrew Molloy cut 1.12 seconds off his 100 butterfly best, 2.59 seconds off his 400 individual medley (where he was fourth overall) time and claimed a silver in the 100 medley.

“He’s on an incredible trajectory right now and working so hard,” Kiddoo said before praising fellow 10th grader Tennyson Sipes. Sipes set four personal bests at the meet.

“He had a breakthrough meet without a doubt,” Kiddoo continued. “His freestyle and backstroke were off the hook fast. It was beautiful to see.”

After working as an assistant under Meghan Hershey for the last four years, Kiddoo took over as head coach in October.

“She’s the one who built this program (and) really brought these kids along,” Kiddoo said of Hershey, who now coaches at Bend Swim Club. Kiddoo said he’s maintained a similar training approach in his first year at the helm.

“We’ve just continued on the same path as far as increasing intensity, yardage and really focusing on their individual needs,” he explained. “And the boys have really supported each other this past six months and really pushed each other to be as good as they can be.”

On the girls’ side, Beidel’s big breakthrough came in the long distances. The 14-year-old placed eighth overall in the 1650-yard free, lopping 29.64 seconds off her previous best with a time of 18:08.63. She also set a personal best in the 200 free prelims and placed 18th in the 500 free finals.

“It’s amazing to watch her swim, and the longer the distance, the better she is,” Kiddoo said of Beidel. “She continues to work super hard in the pool and is always the one asking me for harder, longer sets.”

Thompson competed in six events, setting a 1.21-second personal best in the 100 free with a time of 56.85 seconds.

“It was a beautiful swim and she was really close to swimming her best in the other events as well,” Kiddoo stated. “But her 100 freestyle has come so far. She works hard, too. She’s a nose to the grindstone girl and gets it done.”

The Avon Swim Club will turn its attention to Futures competitions in the summer. Breck Boyd also has earned cuts for the TYR Pro Series. But before that, the boys will compete for Glenwood Springs at the 4A state championships May 8-9 in Arvada. Reflecting on the winter, Kiddoo said he knew — based on the team’s dominance at Colorado competitions through the previous three or four years — that this group could contend at the sectional level. Still, even he was a little surprised by the performances.

“I wasn’t looking for a team win, I was just looking to have our kids swim the best that they could,” he said. “And they certainly did.” 

If anyone is interested in checking out the Avon Swim Club for their child, please have them reach out to Coach Tom Kiddoo at tkiddoo@avon.org.