Teagan O’Dell, Maximus Williamson Win Winter Juniors West High Point Awards

2024 Winter Junior Championships – West

• December 11-15, 2024
• Austin, Texas
• Prelims: 9:00 am (CT) / Finals: 5:00 pm (CT)
• SCY (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• How to Watch
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• Prelims Recap: Day 2, Day 3
• Finals Recap: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

U.S. Junior National Team members Teagan O’Dell and Maximus Williamson came away with the High Point Awards for girls and boys, respectively, at the 2024 Winter Junior Championships – West meet.

• Full scoring breakdown here (All 216 scorers).

High Point – Girls, Teagan O’Dell, Mission Viejo Nadadores

O’Dell, a high school senior committed to the powerful class at Cal for next fall, won the 200 free, 100 back, 200 back, and 200 IM at the meet, swimming best times in each of those races plus the 50 and 100 yard freestyles.

She also showed off her versatility with a 26.83 breaststroke split on a 200 medley relay and a 58.92 split on a 400 medley relay for the Mission Viejo Nadadores. She was good on relays throughout the weekend – her meet-best times in the 50, 100, and 200 free were all on relay leadoffs.

This is O’Dell’s second-straight High Point award at this meet: she scored 117 in 2023. She was 3rd in 2022 with 97 points.

Other multi-event winners from the meet include Madi Mintenko, who had huge battles with O’Dell throughout the week and won the 100 free (47.58 – 47.47 in prelims) and 500 free (4:36.66); Kayla Han, who won the mile (15:56.07) and 400 IM (4:04.44).

Grace Rabb, who finished third in individual High Point scoring, didn’t pick up any wins, but did land on four podiums.

Girls’ Top 5:

1. Teagan O’Dell, Mission Viejo Nadadores (California) – 114 points
2. Madi Mintenko, Pikes Peak Athletics (Colorado) – 101 points
3. Grace Rabb, Longhorn Aquatics (Texas) – 96 points
4. Kayla Han, La Mirada Armada (California) – 87 points
5. Jada Duncan, Sierra Marlins Swim Team (California) – 63 points

High Point Boys, Maximus Williamson, Lakeside Aquatic Club

After finishing 2nd in the scoring last year to then-teammate Cooper Lucas, who is now a freshman at Texas, Maximus Williamson came into his own at this year’s meet with a whopping 9 gold medals (including relays, which don’t count for this award).

Williamson’s results:

Individually, he won the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 100 back, and 200 fly. He had a mixed-bag of best times, as he was really good in some secondary events (including an 18.84 rolling start in the 50 free) but not as good as he has been in the IM races that used to be his specialty (he scratched the 400 IM).

He also had big relay splits, dropping an 18.84 on the 200 free relay and 40.96 on the 400 free relay as part of a tantalizing sprint performance throughout the week for the Virginia-bound high school senior.

Other big individual performers included Campbell McKean from the Bend Swim Club who won the 100 breast (51.72), 200 breast (1:53.54), and 200 IM (1:41.19), in all cases smashing his previous personal bests; and Gabriel Manteufel from the Sandpipers of Nevada, who only swam two individual finals, but won them both: the 500 free (4:13.55) and 1650 free (14:45.58). That 500 free was a nine second time drop for him.

Boys’ Top 5:

1. Maximus Williamson, Lakeside Aquatic Club (Texas) – 116
2. Rowan Cox, Longhorn Aquatics (Texas) – 81
3. Campbell McKean, Bend Swim Club (Oregon) – 60
4. Shareef Elaydi, Santa Clara Swim Club (California) – 55
5. Jack Armour, Texas Ford Aquatics (Texas) – 51