2017 Speedo Junior National Championships
- August 8 – 12, 2017
- East Meadow, NY (Long Island)
- Meet Central
- Meet info
- Psych sheet
- Prelims Timeline
- Live results
- Day 3 finals heat sheet
17-year-old Alexander Zettle of Lakeside Aquatic Club near Dallas, Texas, won the 400 free on Thursday with a new Junior National meet record of 3:51.44. Zettle erased a 2013 mark set by a 16-year-old Townley Haas of Nova of Virginia, whose 3:51.99 took .33 off Nicholas Caldwell’s 2010 meet record.
Zettle took .16 off his seed time in prelims with the second-fastest swim of the morning, 3:54.61. In finals he was out a little faster than in the morning, but the big difference came over the second half, where he averaged nearly 1 second faster per 50. Zettle negative-split his race, going out in 1:55.81 and coming home in 1:55.63. In particular, he powered home over the last 150 meters, never going slower than 28.9. That’s 2.3 second faster than his final 150 in the morning, and 2.2 seconds faster than Townley Haas’s last 150 in 2013.
Zettle’s 3:51.44 ties with John Mykkanen (12/31/1983) for the 15th-fastest performance in 17-18 history.
| Zettle, 8/10/17, Prelims | Zettle, 8/10/17, Final | Haas, 8/7/13, Final |
| 27.65 57.27 (29.62) 1:26.97 (29.70) 1:56.64 (29.67) 2:26.03 (29.39) 2:55.77 (29.74) 3:25.50 (29.73) 3:54.61 (29.11) |
27.54 56.98 (29.44) 1:26.18 (29.20) 1:55.81 (29.63) 2:25.22 (29.41) 2:53.85 (28.63) 3:22.55 (28.70) 3:51.44 (28.89) |
26.32 54.86 (28.54) 1:24.10 (29.24) 1:53.72 (29.62) 2:23.55 (29.83) 2:53.47 (29.92) 3:22.89 (29.42) 3:51.99 (29.10) |
Boys 400 Freestyle – Finals
- WJR: 3:44.60 – Mack Horton
- Meet: 3:51.99 – Townley Haas
- 13-14 NAG: 3:57.61 – Evan Pinion
- 15-16 NAG: 3:50.68 – Larsen Jensen
- 17-18 NAG: 3:46.08 – Larsen Jensen
- GOLD- Alexander Zettle, Lakeside Aquatic Club 3:51.44
- SILVER- Tal Davis, Team Greenville 3:52.26
- BRONZE- Jack LeVant, North Texas Nadadores 3:52.86
He is the closest thing Eddie could have found to Clark Smith. Very similar technique/style. I always enjoyed watching his swim in our meets, and made sure our son was paying attention when Zettle swam.
What ever happened to Evan Pinion….
A lot of injuries.
Nice splits! Good to see, the USA needs talent in this event. Has always been one of our weaker event for some reason.
Haas, Smith, Grothe, Shoults all went 3:48’s at Nationals. I think the “talent” is there. Litherland, D’Arrigo, Sweetser and Houck all have potential. If you want some 18&under “talent” Abruzzo and Freeman have been 3:50’s with Callan and Yeager on their heels. Nice swim by Zettle but I would not say USA is lacking talent in this event. Plenty is there.
But international result is worrying in that event.
Since the mid 80’s the US has had to settle for maybe grabbing a bronze at every worlds or olympics. Given the results from the rest of the men’s events (1500 aside), I’d say the US has been lacking “talent” on the international scale in this event for 3 decades.
Hook em
wow – great pick up for Texas!
Geez those splits are crazy
Doge and Doge Jr