The swimmer from Fox Hollow Swim Club broke her coach’s old record in the 100-meter individual medley at Saturday’s meet.
Setting records at Cherry Bowl is nothing new for Fox Hollow Swim Club’s Mackenzie O’Connor.
In 2015, she helped the Foxes’ girls’ 13–14 100-meter individual medley team break the Cherry Bowl record in one event and set another Cherry Bowl record in the girls’ 13–14 100-meter backstroke.
However, O’Connor’s newest record may be the most impressive.
In the girls’ 15–18 100-meter individual medley, O’Connor breezed past the competition with a time of 1:05.82, breaking the record previously held by one of O’Connor’s coaches at Fox Hollow, Erin McBride.
“It’s cool to pass that along,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor’s record-setting performance is impressive for a few reasons. This year was the first time O’Connor is competing in Cherry Bowl at the 15 to 18-year-old level. In addition, the individual medley, where swimmers must swim one leg each of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle, is a relatively new event for O’Connor.
However, O’Connor had already proven she is able to compete in the individual medley at the high school level. Swimming for Bishop Eustace Preparatory School last season as a sophomore, O’Connor qualified for the NJSIAA Meet of Champions in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing in 19th place in the event.
O’Connor has continued to make strides this summer in the Tri-County Swimming Pool Association season. O’Connor’s record time on Saturday was nearly three seconds better than her previous season-best time of 1:08.66 and is now the fastest time for individual medley in the TCSPA this season.
A big part of O’Connor’s success in the IM is her versatility. O’Connor is very strong in three of the four strokes, holding the fastest time of the TCSPA season in the backstroke, butterfly and freestyle events. Backstroke is where O’Connor is strongest. She had the third-fastest time in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions last year and won the girls’ 13–14 50-meter backstroke last summer at the TCSPA championships.
Breaststroke is the only stroke in which O’Connor has not been dominant . However, she is committed to continue improving in the event.
“Going into breaststroke, that’s my worst stroke. So it’s tough with that transition,” she said.
“I’m just working on it and practicing it,” she added. “I spend just as much time with breaststroke as I do with backstroke.”
O’Connor has had a tough opponent in the pool with her in the individual medley. Old Orchard Swim Club’s Kayla Gagnon is also a very accomplished individual medley swimmer, having finished in 10th place at the last winter’s Meet of Champions swimming for Eastern Regional High School. In the preliminaries of the Meet of Champions, Gagnon’s time was two seconds faster than O’Connor’s. However, this summer, O’Connor leapfrogged Gagnon. In a regular season meet between Fox Hollow and Old Orchard in early July, O’Connor beat Gagnon by a little more than one second. On Saturday, O’Connor bested Gagnon by more than two seconds.
“There have been some challenges (this season),” O’Connor said. “Beating Kayla, who I raced today, that was my first big challenge. It’s cool to go against her.”
O’Connor also swam for Fox Hollow in both the girls’ 15–18 200-meter medley relay and the girls’ 15–18 200-meter freestyle relay. The Foxes earned third place in the medley relay and second place in the freestyle relay. Between the three events she competed in, O’Connor helped Fox Hollow record 66 of the team’s total 597 points at Cherry Bowl.
