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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
TAC Titans standout Finola Whelehan has been on fire throughout 2026, and that continued during the North Carolina Age Group Championships (LCM) last weekend in Greensboro.
The 14-year-old went undefeated, winning five individual titles in the girls’ 13-14 age group while setting four new lifetime bests and propelling the TAC Titans to a trio of relay titles.
Highlighting her performances was what she did in the 200 freestyle.
During the opening session of the meet, Whelehan led off the TAC Titans’ 4×200 free relay in a time of 2:00.33, lowering her month-old personal best time of 2:01.02 to move up one spot into 13th all-time in the girls’ 13-14 age group. The swim also broke the North Carolina Swimming LSC record for 13-14 girls.
All-Time Performers, Girls’ 13-14 200 Freestyle (LCM) – U.S. Club System
- Sippy Woodhead, 1:58.23 – 1979
- Claire Weinstein, 1:58.53 – 2022
- Claire Tuggle, 1:58.58 – 2018
- Missy Franklin, 1:58.67 – 2009
- Chelsea Chenault, 1:59.14 – 2009
- Quinn Carrozza, 1:59.19 – 2011
- Erin Gemmell, 1:59.85 – 2019
- Laura Bensh, 1:59.92 – 1988
- Melissa Trueblood, 2:00.00 – 1984
- Katie Ledecky, 2:00.01 – 2012
- Taylor Ruck, 2:00.14 – 2014
- Rylee Erisman, 2:00.19 – 2024
- Finola Whelehan, 2:00.33 – 2026
- Madi Mintenko, 2:00.64 – 2022
- Ella Ristic, 2:01.11 – 2017
The following day, Whelehan put up a time of 2:00.94 en route to winning the individual 200 free final, giving her four swims within one second of each other over the last month.
At the Pro Swim Series stop in Indianapolis in mid-June, she posted personal best times of 2:01.33 in the morning and then 2:01.02 in the evening en route to winning the ‘C’ final.
Whelehan’s splits for all four swims show remarkable consistency, and the clear difference in her relay lead-off last weekend came on the third 50, where she gained more than half a second on her Indianapolis swims. In the individual race the following day, she was 44 one-hundredths slower over the third 50.
Split Comparison
| PSS Indianapolis, Prelims | PSS Indianapolis, Final | NC AG Champs, Relay | NC AG Champs, Final |
| 28.42 | 28.38 | 28.33 | 28.23 |
| 58.79 (30.37) | 58.89 (30.51) | 58.70 (30.37) | 58.84 (30.61) |
| 1:30.02 (31.23) | 1:30.08 (31.19) | 1:29.37 (30.67) | 1:29.95 (31.11) |
| 2:01.33 (31.31) | 2:01.02 (30.94) | 2:00.33 (30.96) | 2:00.94 (30.99) |
In addition to her performances in the 200 free, Whelehan also set best times in the 100 free (56.30), 400 free (4:26.87) and 400 IM (4:51.40) in Greensboro.
In the 100 free, she knocked 26 one-hundredths off her best time to move into 18th all-time in the 13-14 age group, while in the 400 IM, she dropped a massive 10 seconds to slot into 56th all-time in the age group.
In addition to the 100 free, 200 free and 400 IM, she also won titles in the 200 fly (2:16.52) and 200 IM (2:17.20). In the 400 free, she scratched the final after setting a PB in the prelims.
This performance comes after Whelehan broke Missy Franklin‘s National Age Group Record for 13-14 girls in the short course 200 free this past February in a time of 1:44.25.
Whelehan then followed up by breaking three North Carolina Swimming LSC records at the NCS Short Course Age Group Championships at the end of February, doing so in the 200 fly (1:54.62), 200 IM (1:56.92) and 400 IM (4:08.97) to rank 2nd, 5th and 4th, respectively, all-time among 13-14 girls.
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