Rylee Erisman Blasts NAG and Championship Records in 100 Freestyle at World Junior Championships
Racing in the preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle at the World Junior Championships on Wednesday morning, 16-year-old American Rylee Erisman blasted a National Age Group (NAG) record of 53.17 for the 15-16 classification. The performance took down the previous NAG mark of Claire Curzan, who clocked 53.55 during the 2021 season. The effort was also good for a championship record, lowering the 53.63 posted by Canada’s Taylor Ruck at the 2017 edition of World Juniors.
With a career best of 53.75 entering the meet, along with a handful of other times in that vicinity, Erisman figured to make a charge at Curzan’s record. En route to shaving .38 off the record, Erisman was out in 25.79 and came home in 27.38. The performance makes Erisman the eighth-fastest American in history, regardless of age group.
Erisman will have additional opportunities to take the record even lower, as all events 100 meters or shorter are operating in a prelims-semifinals-finals format at World Juniors. Events 200 meters and longer are using a prelims-finals setup. Erisman claimed the top seed for the semifinals by more than a second, with Great Britain’s Theodora Taylor going 54,46 for the second-fastest time of the morning.
Erisman’s previous personal best was 53.75, which he set last summer at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. At that meet, she also went 53.76. Earlier this year, Erisman was 53.78 at the Fort Lauderdale stop of the TYR Pro Series.
The time from the teenager is not far off the world junior record of 52.70, held by Penny Oleksiak since the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. That time enabled Oleksiak to share the gold medal in the 100 freestyle with American Simone Manuel.
