Day 3 of the 2015 U.S. Junior National Championships will see a quick morning session. The American junior talent will race in the 400 free and 100 fly.
Scottsdale Aquatic Club’s Taylor Ruck holds the top seed in the women’s 400 free with a 4:13.51. On the men’s side, Winter Junior National champ Sean Grieshop (3:53.54) holds the fastest time, 3 seconds ahead of his Nitro teammate Chris Yeager (3:56.86). Grieshop could put the meet record of 3:51.99, set by Townley Haas in 2013, in jeopardy today.
200 fly champ Ella Eastin (1:00.14) will challenge to sweep the butterfly events at this meet, currently seeded at 4th. The top 3 seeds are all sub-1:00. Vanessa Krause (59.80) leads on the start lists, with Victoria Edwards (59.98) and Bailey Nero (59.99) also taking lane 4 in the heats.
Another men’s record is in danger of being broken on Saturday. This time, it’s Justin Lynch’s 52.91 in the 100 fly from 2013. Incoming USC freshman and top seed Alex Valente is entered with a 52.60. Michael Andrew (53.46) will rematch with Maxime Rooney (53.85) after Rooney took the 100 free last night. Andrew is actually faster than his seed time. He was a 52.82 last weekend.
2015 U.S. JUNIOR NATIONALS
- Thursday, July 30th – Monday, August 3rd
- Northside Aquatics Center – San Antonio, Texas
- Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (local time)
- Full coverage
- Psych sheets
- Live stream link
- Live results
WOMEN’S 400 Free
The top 3 in the women’s 400 all went best times to set up what could be a very close race tonight. Karling Hemstreet was the fastest of them, touching the wall in 4:16.84. Gator Swim Club’s Kahra Williams posted the 2nd fastest time, just over a tenth behind in 4:16.97. Erica Laning earned lane 3 in the final at 4:17.45.
Just 4th after prelims, Taylor Ruck (4:17.79) has the potential to break away from this field in the final. She came in with the fastest entry time of 4:13.51, which is still far ahead of the rest of the field. Joy Fields was right behind her this morning at 4:18.06.
Incoming Arizona freshman Sarah Shimomura qualified for her first championship final by placing 6th in 4:18.23. Jennifer Campbell (4:18.41) and Amanda Nunan (4:18.68) closed out the top 8.
MEN’S 400 Free
Nitro Swimming went 1-2 in the prelims of the 400 free, as Sean Grieshop and Chris Yeager won their respective circle seeded heats. Grieshop was the fastest this morning in 3:54.25, but Yeager dropped almost 2 seconds to grab the 2nd seed in 3:55.13.
Arizona’s Parks Jones (3:56.46) dropped 3 seconds to move from 22nd to 3rd seed. 15-year-old Trey Freeman grabbed 4th and qualified for Olympic Trials in 3:57.34. Brendan Meyer (3:57.35) was just .01 behind him to take the 5th spot.
James Murphy was hundredths behind in 3:57.39. Aron Apel, champion in the 1500, dropped about 4 seconds for a 3:57.68. Cole Buese took the last spot in the final at 3:58.03.
WOMEN’S 100 FLY
Ella Eastin put herself in position to win her 3rd event of the meet after this morning’s 100 fly prelims. She went a new best time to take 1st in 1:00.04. Bailey Nero kept it close, racing to a 1:00.06 for 2nd seed. Victoria Edwards came in at 1:00.41 to round out the top 3.
Arizona’s Mackenzie Rumrill cut a second off her previous best to qualify 4th in 1:00.55. Rumrill was the winner of this event at short course juniors in December. Caroline McTaggart, who won the 100 free last night, qualified 5th in 1:00.56.
Remedy Rule (1:00.67), Tevyn Waddell (1:00.69), and Madeline Banic (1:00.87) took the last spots for tonight’s final.
Vanessa Krause, the top seed coming into the meet, took 9th in 1:00.91.
MEN’S 100 FLY
Michael Andrew dominated his heat from start to finish in the 100 fly, surging to the wall in a near personal best. He split 24.50/28.36 on the way to a 52.86 that clipped Justin Lynch’s Junior National meet record of 52.91.
Maxime Rooney was also very close to his best in prelims. He grabbed the 2nd seed in 53.98. That sets those two up in lanes 4 and 5 again for a 100 meter rematch, with a meet record on watch.
Bolles Sharks’ Ariel Spektor (54.01) cranked out a best time to take 3rd behind them. He was barely out-touched by Rooney in his heat. Michael Thomas (54.45) and Mathias Oh (54.67) swam to 4th and 5th.
Alex Valente came into the meet with the top time, and he’ll have the 6th spot going into finals. He was 54.72 this morning, but could make things interesting in the final if he’s close to his best time.
Cameron Craig (54.73) finished just behind Valente for 7th. A tie for 8th place will call for a swimoff between Billy Beard and Mark Jurek. Jurek won the 200 fly on day 1, and will look to swim in the final again after both men touched at 54.77.
Ah, comments are not in the right order.
Not a big deal.
Fly is by far the weakest stroke of Alex Walsh. Only 1.02.89 in prelims.
She has to work very hard that stroke if she wants to become a great IMer.
The 2 girls’ finals are not the most competitive tonight. Not very exciting.
More interesting are the 2 boys’ finals with Grieshop and Freeman in the 400 free and Andrew who will easily dominate the 100 fly. The title and a new NAG record must be his 2 goals of the final. 52.75 to beat. I again wonder why Rooney wastes his energy in that event. Hopefully he will still have enough gas to shine next week at the most important meet.
Anyway, with that stupid world juniors’ qualification system in USA, I even wonder why the best American junior swimmers swim this week.
It looks like I’ve missed a drama here. Can someone explain?
Lauren, Lane, Hswimmer and Phil look pretty angry.
Just a troll being silly. Nothing to see here 😉
Being a troll? Yes, absolutely. Being silly? No. Being mean? Yes. I am happy to see the SwimSwam “family” encircling the wagons around Michael out of a sense of what is right and fair. What was posted was absolutely uncalled for. The SwimSwam fans stepped up and did what was right rather than turning a blind eye. Bravo. Well done!
I would love to see your reaction if this happens to you…
So easy to be an a**hole from behind the safety of your computer. Right, Chill Down? Be all brave and “chilled” and say that to Michael’s face or his dad or mom. Chill your a** right off this site. Better yet, apologize to Michael for making negative assumptions when you don’t even know the kid.
Did you break a Junior National Meet record? Jealous much?
Though I am curious to know how you think he has it easier. I didn’t really see any other kids who had their cars broken into. And why you say sucks to suck when he just had a pretty successful morning. And he did just get up and race. so…..
Right. But the other kids didn’t have their suits stolen.
No. I’m not really going to justify that with an explanation. Just no.
On meet mobile it says he time trailed the 100 fly going a 1:01.34 (24.02/37.32) this doesn’t sound right at all does anyone know I what the deal with this is? Meet mobile just messed up maybe?
I’d guess he went for the 50 split just to check his pure speed at the moment. 24.0 is nothing to scoff at. Even if its not his PB
MA- 52.8! 1st seed into finals with a very big lead on Rooney at a 53.9
Considering what he and his family went through with the car break-in, let’s all give him credit for being one really tough competitor.