- University of Texas’s Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center -Austin, TX
- Wednesday, December 9 – Saturday, December 11
- (Bonus long course meter time trials on Sunday, December 12)
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (Th-Sat), Wed. Timed Finals 6PM (U.S. Central Time)
- Meet Page
- Psych Sheets
- Live results
Women’s 200 backstroke
It was no surprise to see Scottsdale Aquatic Club’s Taylor Ruck at the top of the heap in this morning’s prelims. Ruck has a solid chance to break Courtney Bartholomew’s meet record from 2010 of 1:53.16 tonight.
Also making the final is 13 year old age group phenom Regan Smith in 6th. Fort Collins Area filled up the B Final with the 9th, 10th and 11th place swimmers. Many swimmers were slower than seed, and Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics did not have a qualifer despite leading the meet.
Men’s 200 backstroke
Bryce Mefford of Sierra Marlins just edged Cheyenne Mountain’s Daniel Carr to take the top spot in 1:44.17. Pre-meet top seed Braxton Flowers appeared to cruise to a 5th place spot, expect him to push this race a lot harder tonight.
Top team Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics was able to put two more swimmers into an A-Final with Benjamin Ho and Joe Mollinari.
Women’s 100 freestyle
This race probably has the most star power of the entire night. Ozaukee Aquatic’s Katie Drabot made it in first in 49.05 but she is trailed closely by Taylor Ruck, who will try to win back to back events to lead off tonight’s finals. Miki Dahlke of North Bay Aquatics is a wild card who dramatically improved her seed this morning to finish 2nd.
Drabot’s teammate Skylar Fore also made a modest improvement to make it into the top 8. Expect a competitive B and C final with just .2-3 separating the finalists.
Men’s 100 freestyle
Ryan Hoffer has been the swimmer of the meet thus far, but he was pushed this morning by Iowa Flyer’s Mark McLaughlin, who followed just a couple tenths behind him with both swimmers recording 43s.
The A-Final dropped off steeply, with just 45.02 required to make the A-Final. From there it evened out quite quickly with just .6 down to 24th place at 45.63.
Women’s 200 breaststroke
Palo Alto Stanford Aquatic’s Grace Zhao had the fastest morning time of either junior meet, qualifying first in 2:10.87. No other swimmer was within two seconds of her. As with the men’s 100 freestyle the splitting of these two meets has created a little bit of a depth void at the top, where 8th place was well back at 2:16.18.
Palo Alto was able to get a swimmer into the B-Final tonight and will only lengthen their lead in the team race. A surprise swimmer making it into the top final was nearby Santa Clara Swim Club’s Jenny Ma who improved over two seconds to make it into 7th.
Men’s 200 breaststroke
The men’s breaststroke should have a much more competitive race at hand. While Palo Alto Stanford Aquatic’s Jeremy Babinet confirmed his top seed, he will face stiff competition from Nitro Swimming’s Sean Grieshop. Those two were the only two under 2:00 this morning.
Once again Palo Alto piled into the A-Final, with Babinet joined by Karl Arvidsson in 4th.
Women’s 200 butterfly
Austin Swim Club’s Dakota Luther set a blistering pace, only sagging slightly on the final 50 but still taking the middle lane for tonight in 1:56.58. Top seed Ruby Martin was 2nd, she joined three other swimmers under 2:00.
Lauren Green of Quicksilver Swim was the biggest surprise in the final, getting under 2:00 for the first time after coming in seeded at 2:01.9.
Men’s 200 butterfly
Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics piled on another top seed when Alex Liang led the way in the 200 butterfly. He was trailed closely by Rose Bowl Aquatics Trent Julian, those two recording the only two sub 1:47 swims of the morning.
North Texas Nadadore’s Jack LeVant made a huge improvement to qualify third in 1:47.21.
43s after his recent string of success isn’t that good but I have faith in him dropping a 42 low tonight
Looking at his hundreds yesterday, Hoffer seems to know how to pace well in the morning to have Enugu saved up to blow the doors off in finals.