2024 Winter Junior Championships – West
- December 11-14, 2024
- Wednesday Finals: 5 pm EST
- Thursday-Saturday: Prelims: 10 am EST/ Finals: 5 pm EST
- Austin, TX
- SCY (25 yards)
- Psych Sheets
- Meet Central
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Finals Live Recap
The third day of the annual Winter Junior National Championships has wrapped up, showcasing lots of fast swimming. At the West site, standout performances came from names like Teagan Odell, Kayla Han, and Madi Mintenko on the girls’ side, while Maximus Williamson and Campbell McKean led the charge for the boys.
However, at high-profile meets like this, the spotlight often shines on the big names, and many impressive swims can go unnoticed. To ensure these efforts don’t get overlooked, SwimSwam has compiled a list of strong performances that might have otherwise flown under the radar.
The women’ 400 IM kicked off the session with a noteworthy performance by 15-year-old Emma Hussein of Canyons Aquatic Club. After entering the meet with a personal best of 4:19.52, Hussein improved to 4:18.35 in prelims, qualifying for finals in 11th. She then delivered an even stronger performance in finals, clocking a 4:13.88. Although Hussein didn’t start out the fastest of field, she used strong breast (1:11.36) and free (57.80) splits to take the lead by the 300 mark. With that swim, Hussein dominated the consolation final by over 2 seconds.
Olympus Aquatics’ Abe Astle came in 4th in the mens’ 400 IM, swimming a 3:50.05 to drop 4.31 seconds on the day. Astle, a BYU commit, entered with a best of 3:54.36, which he lowered to 3:51.30 in prelims, before shaving another second off in finals. Another stellar performance in the 400 IM came out of the ‘C’ final, where Tsunami Swim Team’s Whitaker Steward swam a 3:50.20 to take the win. Steward, a junior who is committed to Tennessee, was seeded with a 3:55.37 — a personal best that he swam at the 2023 edition of this meet.
In the 100 fly, 16-year-old Emma Bronson came in 7th in the championship final after being seeded 63rd with a long course time of 1:02.60. With Bronson’s previous best SCY time being a 55.00, she dropped nearly 2 seconds on the day.
In the men’s edition of the event, Air Force commit Evan Witte swam a 47.25 to win the consolation final. He dropped 2.86 seconds in a single day, as he entered this meet with a PB of 50.11—a time he swam at Winter Junior’s last year in a time trial. He first cut 2.37 seconds, clocking a 47.74 in prelims, before shaving another half second off in finals to retain the top seed of the ‘B’ final.
The 200 free saw Liberty Clark, and Indiana commit, drop 1.99 seconds off her previous best of 1:47.75. With a final time of 1:45.76, Clark placed 4th overall. Two other impressive swims came out of the ‘C’ final, as Avery Dillon took the win in 1:47.86 to break both the 1:48 and 1:49 barrier for the first time. She entered this meet with a best time of 1:49.40, matched that to the hundredth in prelims, then split 53.21/54.65 to set a huge personal best. Second in that same final was 15-year-old Stella Canoles, who had a PB of 1:50.02 before today. She lowered that to a 1:49.20 in prelims, then lowered it again in finals for a 1:48.68.
ASU commit Noah Mudadu took 4th in the consolation final for the 200 free, and he broke several barriers in the process. Heading into Winter Juniors Madadu had a best of 1:38.18, a time he had just established last month at the Nevada State Championships, and his PB before this season was 1:42.66. Tonight, the Sandpipers of Nevada swimmer swam to a 1:36.95 to drop over 5 seconds just this season.
15-year-old Mia Su made waves in the consolation final for the 100 breast, where she broke the 1:01 barrier for the first time in her career. After lowering her 1:01.50 PB to a 1:01.23 in prelims, Su swam a 1:00.86 in finals for 3rd in the ‘B’ final.
Badger Aquatics’ Sam Wolf hit a new PB in his 100 breast by over a second to win the consolation final. He brought his 54.80 PB to a 54.34 in prelims, then lowered it even further in finals—by nearly a full second—to a 53.42.
Kamryn Meskill, a UNC commit, swam a huge best of 53.14 in the ‘B’ final to secure the runner-up position. She dropped over 2 seconds from her 55.30 best set last March at a sectionals meet. Another quick swim in the 100 back came from 14-year-old Daniela Linares Danzos in the Championship final, where with a time of 53.64, she came in 7th overall. This was nearly a second drop from her previous best of 54.56, which was set just last month.
Donqi Yu of the Palo Alto Swim Club also had a strong showing in his 100 back, as he swam a 47.66 to win the ‘B’ final. This was over a one second improvement from the 48.86 that he swam at last year’s edition of this meet. There, he placed 16th in ‘B’ final.
Tonight’s relay was the 4×50 free relay. Palo Alto’s Allison Liu, a 16-year-old, anchored her team to a 7th place finish with 22.44; this was over a second faster than her best flat start in the 50 free, which is a 23.53. With that swim, Liu was the second fastest anchor of the field.
In the men’s relay, Quicksilver swimming broke the Boys’ 15-16 NAG. That swim was highlighted by Isaac Litwiller‘s anchor split, a 19.95, which was nearly a second faster than his flat start best of 20.70. He was the fastest anchor in the entire field. Another strong showing came from Caleb Rohacs of Pikes Peak Athletics. His split of 20.17 was amongst the fastest of the field, and significantly faster than his flat start best of 20.73. He helped his team to a 14th place finish overall.
