Information You Need to Follow Day 4 Finals at the 2014 U.S. Junior National Swimming Championships
- Day 4 prelims recap.
- Day 4 finals timeline (meet is expected to end at 8:16 PM California time).
- Day 4 finals heat sheets.
- All the links you need to follow the meet live.
Scratches
The lone scratch out of finals on Saturday is Sophie Cattermole, who dropped out of the girls’ 200 free final after being 24th in prelims. Cattermole swims for the Sarasota YMCA Sharks in Florida. Cattermole nailed her taper again, beating her previous lifetime best (from this same meet last year) by two seconds. She was actually entered in the 200 free with a yards seed, and climbed all the way up to qualify for finals. This is also a Winter Nationals cut in the event – her first cut of any kind in the long course 200 free. She’s now swum a lifetime best in the 100, 200, 400, and 800 freestyles this week, and still has the 200 IM to swim on Sunday.
Headlines For Day 4’s Finals
Coming into prelims today, we were really looking forward to watching the 100 backstroke events. We’re still looking forward to those races, but suddenly we’re even more excited about the 200 freestyles.
16-year old Stanzi Moseley of Roadrunner Aquatics was a 2:00.37 in prelims of the girls’ race, and 14-year old Taylor Ruck from the Scotsdale Aquatic Club was 2nd in 2:00.82.
No 14-year old has gone under two minutes since 2011, and while a handful of 16-year olds do it every year, it’s still rare enough to be exciting for Moseley (the names that have done it is a whose-who of current or future NCAA All-Americans, including Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky, Lia Neal, Katie McLaughlin, Gilliam Ryan, Katie Drabot, Chelsea Chenault, and Simone Manuel).
Then in the men’s 200 free, the ever-evolving Maxime Rooney shocked us with a 1:49.70 to take the top seed in the men’s 200 free at just 16. Rooney was a star 200 freestyler as a 14-year old, but that’s when he went his previous lifetime best of 1:54.41. After not improving at all in the two-plus years since, he suddenly dropped five seconds in the heats and now ranks 9th among American men (of any age) in 2014. The National Age Group Record was set last year by Caeleb Dressel in 1:48.64.
If it’s any sort of an omen, Dressel arrived in Irvine on Friday to prepare for an expected warmup 50 free on Sunday at Junior Nationals before the senior version starts next week, so he’ll probably be on deck to see Rooney’s swim.
Rooney is already 3rd on the all-time list with this swim though, and the only target between he and Dressel is Ian Crocker’s 1998 time of 1:49.48.
Finals begin at 6PM California time, 9PM Eastern time, as they have all week, in Irvine, California.
I wonder why Bilquist and Mosley chose to taper for jrs instead of nats given teams are only being picked next week. Both would have had a chance…but coming off a taper who knows.
Predictions:
W 100 Back
Amy Bilquist doesn’t have to lead at the turn to take this race. My guess is someone from an outside lane will take it out fast, but won’t be able to hold on letting Bilquist and Adams to fight it out for the win. I doubt anyone will dip under the 1 minute mark, but it might be close, my pick is Bilquist.
M 100 Back
Michael Taylor did it again on the prelims, but this time I think he’ll be able to hold off pressure from Andrew and Conaton and win it. Andrew will be first at the turn, but will fade away at the 75 meter mark. My dark horse for… Read more »
Girls’ 200 free
Stanzi Moseley or Taylor Ruck?
Taylor Ruck or Stanzi Moseley?
I don’t know.
I pick Taylor Ruck because I’m impressed by her since the start of the meet.
Miss Moseley has the meet of her life so far.
It will be a great race with perhaps a sub 2 minutes at the end.
Boys’ 200 free… Read more »
Before the meet Townley Haas was the big favorite. The 200 free is in my opinion his best event for his international future.
I think he’s still the guy to beat tonight but his margin is very small now.
Cool to see the young Maxime Rooney have a breakout meet like that.
Is rooney swimmig for usa internationally?
He’s American and he will swim at Nationals next week.
I think he is eligible to represent the Philippines as well.
Maxime Rooney’s progression
100 free
2008. 1.11.51
2009. 1.06.16
2010. 58.57
2011. 56.08
2012. 52.41
2013. 52.69
2014. 50.60
200 free
2008. 2.36.71
2009. 2.24.27
2010. 2.07.16
2011. 2.01.36
2012. 1.54.41
2013. 1.54.97
2014. 1.49.70. So far. Still a final to swim.
Anna kolanowski is seeded third in 200 free tonight after a great morning swim. She’s gonna be a sophomore at Georgia and though she wasn’t a big name signing the UGA 200 free factory is working for her. Watch for her to be a bigger contributor to Georgia’s title hopes this year than last.