2015 US Junior Nationals: Day 1 Finals Preview

2015 U.S. Junior Nationals

• Thursday, July 30th – Monday, August 3rd
• Northside Swim Center – San Antonio, Texas
• Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (Central Daylight Time)
• Full coverage
• Psych sheets
• Live stream link
• Live results

After an exciting morning session on Day One of the 2015 Junior National Championships at Northside Swim Center in San Antonio, Texas, finals are shaping up to provide even more thrills, with a few meet records on the line.

The women’s 200 fly went much as expected this morning, with top seed Ella Eastin of SOCAL Aquatics earning lane four in tonight’s “A” final after turning out the top time of 2:12.58. That is Eastin’s sixth-best performance, and her second-fastest of 2015 after a 2:11.68 at LA Invite. Eastin is a strong finals performer, so it wouldn’t be out of the question to watch her rattle Jasmine Tosky’s 2010 meet record of 2:09.28 in finals.

Pushing Eastin will be Emma Seiberlich (2:12.63) of Phoenixville YMCA and Victoria Edwards (2:12.73) of Longhorn Aquatics, both of whom went lifetime bests this morning. Edwards’ teammate, Dakota Luther (2:12.82), is the youngest A-finalist at 15; she dropped a half-second in prelims.

The men’s 200 fly final may be an even tighter race than the women’s. 15-year-old Max Miranda of Bluefish Swim Club dropped 6/10 in prelims to lead the field with 2:00.21. Miranda finished 24th at last year’s Juniors with 2:02.9. Including this morning’s swim, he has already been faster eight times this season; six of those have qualified him for 2016 Olympic Trials. North Carolina Aquatic Club’s Will Macmillan improved his seed time by 9/10 to qualify second with 2:00.79.

Maxime Rooney of Pleasanton Seahawks was the event’s top seed, coming in seeded with 1:59.26 from his third-place finish at 2014 Summer Juniors; he went 2:01.18 this morning in his fastest-ever morning swim. Arizona Gold’s Mark Jurek, who placed fourth last year, just .15 behind Rooney, qualified fourth in 2:01.21. Rooney and Jurek are the only two in the field who have already been sub-2:00. It will take quite an effort to break Andrew Seliskar’s meet record of 1:56.54, set in 2013.

Adding to the excitement of tonight’s final will be Cole Buese of North Baltimore and Sam Pomajevich of Nation’s Capital, who qualified in 2:01.27 and 2:01.29, respectively, each about a second off his seed time. Another 15-year-old, Jack LeVant of North Texas Nadadores, dropped 1.2 seconds to post a 2:01.62, just .04 ahead of Alarii Levreault-Lopez of Chattahoochee Gold and .06 ahead of Swim Pasadena’s Sean Lee, who will occupy lane 4 of the “B” final tonight. Taylor Abbott of Nitro scratched out of the “B” final, presumably to concentrate on the men’s 1500 in which he is seeded first, 6.8 seconds off Jordan Wilimovsky’s meet record of 15:23.01 from 2012.

That’s a tight field when 1.47 seconds separate 1st from 9th.

The meet records that are most in danger of falling, however, are in both the women’s and men’s 100 breast. Miranda Tucker of Livonia Community broke the 1:09 barrier for the first time to lead the women’s qualifiers by 1.6 seconds. Her 1:08.83 is .54 away from Kasey Carlson’s 1:08.29 meet mark from 2008. Ian Finnerty of Indiana University Swim Team is with .72 of Carsten Vissering’s 1:01.94, set in 2013. Finnerty was only .03 off his personal best in prelims with 1:02.66; he is a full second faster than a year ago when he finished 13th in this event at Juniors, and he led this morning’s field by 6/10.