2022 Winter Junior Championships: Combined East/West Results – Day 1

2022 WINTER JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 7-10, 2022
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
• East: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
• Meet Central – East
• Live Results – East
• West: Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, Texas
• Meet Central – West
• Live Results – West

The first sessions of Winter Junior Championships East (Greensboro, NC) and Winter Junior Championships West (Austin, TX) are in the books. As we always do, we will be combining the results from the two sites to bring you the combined top-8 finishers in each event from each day.

Day 1 was a timed-finals session that featured the 200 medley and 800 free relays.

Girls’ 200 Yard Medley Relay – Timed Finals

• East Record: 1:37.60 – Carmel Swim Club (Berglund, Kitchel, Shackell, Christman), 2021
• West Record: 1:37.65 – Fort Collins Area Swim Team (B Stewart, Z Bartel, C Gillilan, K Alons), 2017
• 13-14 NAG Record: 1:41.87 – TAC Titans (Clark, Cotter, Curzan, Morris), 2019
• 15-16 NAG Record: 1:39.21 – Virginia Gators (Muzzy, Kulp, Bray, Hamilton), 2017
• 17-18 NAG Record: 1:38.98 – Nashville Aquatic Club (Hurt, A. Walsh, Massey, G. Walsh), 2020

Combined Top 8:

1. Carmel Swim Club-IN (B Berglund, M Sweeney, A Shackell, M Christman) – 1:36.48 (Meet Record) (East)
2. Mission Viejo-CA (T O’Dell, M Phillips, Asia Kozan, T Salvino) – 1:38.70 (West)
3. Bellevue Club-PN (S Sunwoo, G Tu, C Watson, P Enge) – 1:39.44 (West)
4. Sandpipers of Nevada-CA (K Grimes, L Warnick, B Sims, M Hodges) – 1:39.53 (West)
5. TAC Titans-NC (T Morris, S Armand, K Cotter, J Crooks) – 1:39.58 (East)
6. Sarasota Sharks-FL (A Sauickie, G Weyant, S McIntosh, M Eckerman) – 1:39.71 (East)
7. Denver Hilltoppers-CO (C Wilson, O Roumph, L Greenhawt, L Ficken) – 1:40.13 (West)
8. Crow Canyon Sharks-PC (N Mak, R Mellott, B Hartman, S Suppiger) – 1:40.31 (West)

The “West” meet produced five of the top 8 performances, but the fastest quartet came from the East’s Carmel, Indiana. Berit Berglund (24.07), Molly Sweeney (27.46), Alex Shackell (22.83), and Meghan Christman (22.12) combined for a meet record-breaking time of 1:36.48.

Carmel’s Berglund had the fastest backstroke leadoff (24.07), followed by Mission Viejo’s Teagan O’Dell (24.35). Bellevue Club’s Gillian Tu (27.18) led the breaststokers; Carmel’s Molly Sweeney (27.46) and Crow Canyon’s Raya Mellott (27.52) also split sub-28s.

Carmel’s Alex Shackell and Sandpipers’ Bella Sims were the fastest butterflyers by nearly half a second with their respective splits of 22.83 and 22.84. Crow Canyon’s Bailey Hartman (23.51) and Summer McIntosh from Sarasota Sharks (23.62) were the only other sub-24s.

Jillian Crooks of TAC Titans blasted a 21.68 anchor leg for the fastest freestyle split in the field, while Teia Salvino of Mission Viejo was just .03 behind with 21.71.

Boys’ 200 Yard Medley Relay – Timed Finals

• East Record: 1:26.52 – Mason Manta Rays (C. Foster, J. Foster, McDonald, Chaney), 2018
• West Record: 1:27.11 – Scottsdale Aquatic Club (R Hoffer, S Gage, R Van Deusen, J Blake), 2016
• 13-14 NAG Record: 1:34.61 – Carmel Swim Club (Lancaster, Malicki, Haig, Enoch), 2020
• 15-16 NAG Record: 1:28.85 – Mason Manta Rays (C. Foster, Van Gorp, McDonald, Chaney), 2018
• 17-18 NAG Record: 1:26.43 – Spartan Aquatic Club (N. Stoffle, Lin, Muhammed, Sacca), 2020

Combined Top 8:

1. Rose Bowl-CA (M Cahill, D Li, N Kim, R Maurer) – 1:27.17 (West)
2. New Albany-OH (H Williams, C Swearingen, J Smith, T Lambert) – 1:27.53 (West)
3. Lakeside Swim Team-KY (J Crush, W Scholtz, T Mercer, A Thiesing) – 1:27.60 (East)
4. Lakeside Aquatic Club-NT (M Williamson, C Lucas, R Osio, R Paulk) – 1:28.29 (West)
5. Swim Neptune-AZ (K Jones, T Mungia, A Vetsch, I Pickles) – 1:28.50 (West)
6. Bolles School Sharks-FL (C Lancaster, W Heck, A Paro, S Tolentino) – 1:28.68 (East)
7. Aquajets-MN (L Logue, C Egeland, D Ploof, Henry Webb) – 1:28.69 (West)
8. TAC Titans-NC (W Thompson, N Grayson, C Whelehan, J Fox) – 1:28.82 (East)

Rose Bowl Aquatics came out on top of the boys’ 4×50 medley relay, just meeting the West meet record of 1:27.11 with their combined 1:27.17. Max Cahill (22.24), Daniel Li (24.24), Nathan Kim (21.14), and Rex Maurer (19.55) contributed to the effort.

The fastest backstroke leadoffs came from New Albany’s Hudson Williams (21.40), Lakeside Swim Team’s Johnny Crush (21.55), and Aquajets’ Luke Logue (21.73). Chase Swearingen of New Albany produced the fastest breaststroke split (24.04), two-tenths faster than Rose Bowl’s Li (24.24).

The Rose Bowl got a big boost on the second half of their relay, with Kim and Maurer producing the fastest butterfly and freestyle legs of the night. Kim went 21.14, three-tenths faster than Neptune’s August Vetsch and Bolles’ Aidan Paro (both 21.47). Maurer’s 19.55 was the fastest anchor among the top-8 finishers, but River Paulk of Lakeside Aquatic (19.64) and Jerry Fox from TAC Titans (19.66) also broke 20 seconds on their rolling-start 50 freestyles.

Girls’ 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• East Record: 7:05.85 – Nashville Aquatic Club (Raab, G. Walsh, Nelson, A. Walsh), 2017
• West Record: 7:02.90 – Sandpipers of Nevada (K Grimes, C Weinstein, P Kuwata, A Sims), 2021
• 13-14 NAG Record: 7:18.96 – NOVA Aquatics (G. Sheble, C. Sheble, Erickson, Ackerly), 2017
• 15-16 NAG Record: 7:08.94 – NCAP (Duncan, Spink, Wall, Gemmell), 2020
• 17-18 NAG Record: 7:06.69 – NCAP (Duncan, Wall, Spink, Gemmell), 2022

Combined Top 8:

1. Sandpipers of Nevada-CA (B Sims, K Grimes, M Hodges, C Weinstein) – 6:52.66 (West Record)
2. Sarasota Sharks-FL (A Sauickie, M Mattes, G Weyant, S McIntosh) – 7:03.66 (East Record)
3. Carmel Swim Club “A”-IN (A Shackell, L Bowen, M Sweeney, B Berglund) – 7:07.10 (East)
4. TAC Titans-NC (N Zettel, M Whelehan, J Crooks, K Cotter) – 7:14.20 (East)
5. Mission Viejo-CA (T O’Dell, T Salvino, A Withey, S Willson) – 7:15.74 (West)
6. Crow Canyon Sharks-PC (E Butler, R Mellott, S Suppiger, B Hartman) – 7:17.15 (West)
7. Carmel Swim Club “B”-IN (M Christman, V Wilson, E Cummins, L Ward) – 7:17.89 (East)
8. Dynamo Swim Club-GA (S Brison, E Jones, C Choate, A Mitchell) – 7:18.52 (East)

The West meet only accounted for three of the top 8 swims in the girls’ 800 free relays, but the Sandpipers of Nevada blew the field away with their record-breaking performance. Not only did Bella Sims (1:40.78), Katie Grimes (1:43.26), Macky Hodges (1:44.60), and Claire Weinstein (1:44.02) take down the meet record, but they also destroyed the girls’ 15-18 national age group record. Their winning time of 6:52.66 would have placed second at NCAAs last year.

In addition to Sims’ outstanding 1:40.78, other notable leadoffs came from Carmel’s Shackell (1:43.60) and Mission Viejo’s O’Dell (1:44.60). Sarasota’s McIntosh led the flying start legs with her 1:40.19 anchor.

Boys’ 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• East Record: 6:23.21 – Carmel Swim Club (Davis, Rothrock, Hadley, Mitchell), 2019
• West Record: 6:29.57 – Rose Bowl Aquatics (R Maurer, R Dalmacio, W Kim, Z Larrick), 2021
• 13-14 NAG Record: 6:55.16 – SwimMAC (Osman, Turner, Clontz, Bartee), 2021
• 15-16 NAG Record: 6:30.45 – Rose Bowl Aquatics (Dalmacio, Kim, Larrick, Maurer), 2021
• 17-18 NAG Record: 6:23.21 – Carmel Swim Club (Davis, Rothrock, Hadley, Mitchell), 2019

Combined Top 8:

1. Lakeside Aquatic Club-NT (M Williamson, C Lucas, M Hatcher, R Paulk) – 6:22.78 (West)
2. Rose Bowl-CA (Z Larrick, R Maurer, N Kim, R Liu) – 6:26.77 (West)
3. Carmel Swim Club (A Shackell, G Enoch, L Zhang, S Sullivan) – 6:27.38 (East)
4. Nitro Swimming-ST (S Wang, D Bishop, J Kelly, O Rowe) – 6:28.33 (West)
5. Swim Neptune-AZ (B Yang, I Pickles, A Vetsch, K Jones) – 6:29.33 (West)
6. SwimMAC Carolina-NC (C Maldari, N Clontz, J Haywood, A Ayers) – 6:29.63 (East)
7. SwimAtlanta-GA (B Irwin, T DenBrok, B Burnley, K Heffner) – 6:31.25 (East)
8. Blue Tide Aquatics-GU (L Stibrich, E Jin, J Simmons, B Studdert) – 6:32.86 (West)

The top four teams in the West meet all came to the wall under the meet record of 6:29.57, set last year by Rose Bowl Aquatics. However, it was Lakeside Aquatic Club’s Maximus Williamson (1:33.07), Cooper Lucas (1:34.13), Max Hatcher (1:37.44), and River Paulk (1:38.14) who came away with the title and the new meet mark, taking nearly 7 seconds off the old record and beating Rose Bowl by 3.99 seconds with 6:22.78. Williamson’s leadoff leg broke the national age group record for 15-16 boys.

Carmel’s Aaron Shackell led off with the next-fastest flat-start 200 free (1:35.02). Rose Bowl’s Maurer (1:33.42), Neptune’s Jones (1:33.50), Lakeside Aquatic’s Lucas (1:34.13) clocked the fastest flying start legs.