It’s night four of swimswam coverage here in Irvine, California at the USA Swimming 2013 Junior National Championships. This is the fastest Juniors we have seen in years, and the future of swimming continued to impress with three new meet records set tonight – making our total 14 so far.
Women’s 200 Freestyle
Quinn Carrozza, Texas Longhorn Aquatics, led wire-to-wire here in the finals of the women’s 200 freestyle. She was out at 27.61 at the first 50, and flipped well under a minute pace at 57.50.
Katherine Drabot (OZ) had a very strong wall coming off the hundred. She slightly challenged Carrozza, out splitting her on the third 50, 30.22 to 30.43. It wasn’t enough to overtake as Carrozza responded with a dominating closing kick and tempo to pull away from the field.
Carrozza finished at 1:58.31, just .04 from the meet record set by Olympian Lia Neal in 2011.
Katie McLaughlin (MVN) was out fourth at the 100, but used a strong back half to move to up second in 1:59.20. Katherine Drabot ended up third at 1:59.32.
Men’s 200 Freestyle
The A final was a close field at the half way mark, with just about every swimmer turning about a second within each other at the 100m mark. Following the textbook race strategy in the 200 freestyle, Gunnar Bentz (DYNA) made a move on the leader Blake Pieroni (DUNE).
Pieroni had about .5 on Bentz at the 150m, but Bentz laid the hammer down out splitting Pieroni 27.5 to 28.5, enough to surge him in front. Bentz took the title in 1:49.57. Bentz was key to Dynamo men’s winning and record setting 800 freestyle relay last night.
Pieroni fell to second in 1:49.98. Alexander Katz (SYS) was third at 1:50.17.
The real story was in the B final. Caeleb Dressel from Bolles failed to qualify in the A final this morning, finishing 9th in the preliminaries session. He came back tonight to absolutely light up the B final. Clearly out to prove he was the best in the water, he was out fast on the field.
Dressel smashed the NAG 15-16 record of 1:49.48 and meet record from Clay Youngquist in 2010 of 1:49.37 when he swam 1:48.64 tonight. He easily would have won the race tonight, but had to settle for 9th place proving that if you want a chance at the title, you have to get the job done in the morning.
Dressel has had a strong meet thus far, winning the 100 freestyle, finishing second the 100 butterfly and having the top time in the 200 freestyle tonight. He will go for the 50 freestyle title tomorrow.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
She was the top seed with a great morning swim at 1:09.00 and Bethany Galat (SBSC) was able to back that up tonight. She won the women’s 100 breaststroke a little off her preliminary time at 1:09.59.
Galat had quick reaction time, registering at .59 easily visible ahead of the field. She had quick early speed out in the only 31 at the 50m mark. That quickness on the front half crept up on her slightly in the final 25m as Olivia Anderson (AQJT) and Kennedy Lohman (LAK) made their move.
Their effort weren’t enough to overtake Galat in the final 10m. Unfortunately, Kennedy Lohman DQ’ed with a flinch at the start, after finishing second unofficially. That moved Olivia Anderson to second at 1:09.37.
Maija Roses (MAC) finished third at 1:09.56.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Carsten Vissering (NCAP) was just .2 off the meet record this morning, and he had no intention of missing it tonight based off his swim. He had a commanding lead, way under record pace at the 50 turning at 28.97, the only sub 29 of the field.
He carried the lead through the finish to set a new 15-16 NAG and meet record with a time of 1:01.94. The old meet record belonged to Christian Higgins from 2009 at 1:02.29.
In a tough double, Gunnar Bentz (DYNA) came off his win from the 200 freestyle to finish second here at 1:02.39. He was turned last at the 50, the only 30 in the heat, but known for his closing speed he moved up fast and furious. He ran out of room and settled for second in his second race of the evening.
Andrew Schuehler (JW) was third, 1:02.73.
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Clara Smiddy (AKS) has struggled through knee injuries this past year. By the looks of her tonight, she has made a full recovery sealing it with a win the women’s 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.51.
Smiddy had a small margin, out at 29.53, just slightly over Hannah Weiss (KING) who was 29.64. Off the turn, they remained even but Smiddy looked stronger over the final 25m, accelerating through the water pulling away from the field.
Kylie Stewart from Dynamo was in her second swim of the night after finishing 5th in the 200 freestyle earlier in the night. Stewart has very solid underwaters and she was able to finish 2nd at 1:01.44.
Weiss faded back to 3rd at 1:01.74.
Men’s 100 Backstroke
Hennessey Stuart (DSA) had an early lead at the 50m turning at 27.13. Ryan Harty (GMSC) was close behind at 27.44, with the rest of the field.
Harty then turned it on, increasing his stroke rate significantly and ramped up his kick. He passed Stuart by the final 15m, and held on for the win at 56.05.
Stuart fought hard all the way to the finish, almost looking like he would regain the lead. But Stuart had to settle for silver, as he finished second at 56.16.
Dayton Raiders had three swimmers make it to finals in this event. Joshua Quallen and Patrick Mulcare topped the B and C finals, while Henrik Pohlmann finished 3rd in the A final at 56.71.
Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay
The women had their turn at the 800 freestyle relays tonight. From the second heat tonight, York YMCA came home with a new meet record with a time of 8:10.13. The record belonged to North Baltimore set last year.
York, with the team of Courtney Harnish (2:02.66), Nicole Price (2:02.87), Emily Ilgenfritz (2:03.48) & Meghan Small (2:01.12), they were steadily under pace the whole race, and hung in second place to Mission Viejo after three exchanges.
Dynamo spread with their two A finalists in the 200 freestyle from earlier tonight, Kylie Stewart and Nicole Stafford to keep them in the hunt. Stafford had a pounding kick to split 2:00.96 to surpass Mission to get second at 8:15.06 to 8:15.69.
It doesn’t still work. 😥
Wow! It will be great tonight.
Bentz vs Seliskar.
Dressel and Andrew against the time.
I hope the live stream will work.
USA SWIMMING, PLEASE FIX THE PROBLEMS FOR TONIGHT. THANK YOU.
Dressel went 22.39 PB?
Michael Andrew 22.58 to qualify 9th
Correction Andrew went 23.58
New PB, new meet record and new 15/16 NAG record for Caeleb Dressel! He wanted to go fast in the prelims. Not sure he will go faster tonight but it’s already a huge performance.
For Michael Andrew it’s 23.58. Not bad just after a 200 IM. It will be hard for him tonight but we never know.
Not bad for Andrew to swim in the B-Final with the best time. He will swim ahead. He would have been well behind in the A-Final.
I thought meet record was Vlad with a 22.13
Correction. No new meet record for Caeleb Dressel. It’s 22.13 by Vlad Morozov in 2010.
Anybody in Europe having issues streaming the junior nationals?
I don’t watch prelims this week. Too long. But I’ve just tried to check and you’re right. It doesn’t work for me here in France. But I think it’s the same everywhere in the world. I hope it will work for the finals. There are too many great races to watch tonight.
Live stream
http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2146&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en
yeah no good… holding thumbs for the finals! particularly looking forward to Michael Andrew’s 50 time (as you mentioned next to Dressel might make a big difference)
Andrew had a solid IM making the C final tonight. He dropped a second and is only about .3 from Phleps’ NAG record of 2:06.50. Seliskar did not get DQ this time so we finally have a final race between Bentz and Seliskar.
Thanks for the update
I think Michael Andrew will struggle to break his 50 free NAG record after a 200 IM.
Caeleb and his coach Jason definitely want to swim fast all the time. 1:51 in the prelims wasn’t slow. Juniors is just ridiculously fast this year. But when you get to meets like the World Cup (which he may be going to) it’s good to know how to conserve energy. This was a good learning experience and I bet he won’t let it happen again
It happens to many swimmers at the elite level (I have done it many times). It could be a slow heat or now knowing how fast you need to swim. It was nice to see him come back in B final and swim fast knowing that he could not win…good character. As a swimmer it stinks to not make the A final even though you are fast enough to be in it…it is a really learning experience.
Loafing in the morning and missing the A Final, when you are clearly one of the top two or three swimmers in the event is sometimes a sign of impending burn-out, sometimes a sign of missed strategy, and sometimes simply not feeling well. I doubt the latter since he recovered enough to break a meet record.
Not wanting to swim fast all the time at age 16 = disappointing.
I think it is unfair to make wildly baseless generalizations about the top teenage swimming talent in the country regarding his supposed impending burnout or any other negative assumptions.
Plenty of world-level swimmers have misjudged a prelim or semi-final swim. This happens every year.
When you think about the typical differential between prelims and finals for a “top” swimmer at a national level meet in a 200 distance – I would say 3 seconds is typical.
In hindsight, who would have thought 1:51 would not make finals?
My backstroke idol Aaron Peirsol has made a mistake in 2009 at the world championships in the 100 back semi-finals while he was clearly ahead of everyone that week. He didn’t qualify in final. Even the greatest stars make mistakes.
Phelps almost did the same last year in London during the heats of the 400 IM. Cseh was only 0.07 behind in the same heat and ended up 9th and out of the final.
It seems that while seliskar can dominate the range in SCY, he is much more if a 200 fly specialist in meters. Very interesting to see how his event selection pans out.
Day 5 will be great.
Ella Eastin in the women’s 200 IM. Where is Kathleen Baker?
Battle of stars with Gunnar Bentz vs Andrew Seliskar in the men’s 200 IM. A sub 2 minutes is possible. 15/16 NAG record to beat for Seliskar is 2.00.86 by Michael Phelps. 13/14 NAG record to beat for Michael Andrew is 2.06.50 by Michael Phelps.
Caeleb Dressel must swim a big 50 free tonight if he wants to qualify for the world junior championships. The second best time is for the moment 22.73. Big battle to come with Powers and Condorelli. Michael Andrew will swim near Caeleb Dressel in the prelims and could improve his NAG record of 23.47.