Swartout Breaks Swim Record at National Junior Olympics

Ben Swartout of the Buenaventura Swim Club set a National Junior Olympics record Friday morning, winning his heat of the 500 freestyle preliminaries in 4 minutes 24.77 seconds in the meet in Dallas.

Swartout, fatigued by the morning preliminaries, placed fifth in the final Friday night with a mark of 4:28.32.

Swartout, a senior at Rio Mesa High, had enough energy to lead Buenaventura’s 800 freestyle relay team to a third-place finish with a time of 6:46.37. Also on the team were Rio Mesa’s Ben Pecht and Buena High’s Joel Gustafson and Chris Pelant.

Valery Calkins, of the Conejo Swim Assn., finished second in the girls’ 500 freestyle with a time of 4:49.07. Calkins is a junior at Thousand Oaks.