Claire Tuggle Blasts No. 2 All-Time American 13-14 200 Free – 1:58.59

2018 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Clovis Swim Club phenom Claire Tuggle is now the second-fastest 13-14 American woman of all-time in the 200 freestyle after her prelims swim at the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships Thursday morning.

Tuggle, who turned 14 on July 8th, split 27.63/29.80/30.72/30.44 en route to her final time of 1:58.59. Her previous best time was 1:59.11, from the 2018 Irish Open in April.

She is now only .06 off of Sippy Brennan‘s national age group record of 1:58.53, set in 1978, and pushed Missy Franklin back to No. 3 all-time. She is the No. 12 seed going into Thursday night finals, where she’ll be gunning for the record.

Top Performers: US Women’s 13-14 200 free
1 Sippy Brennan 1:58.53
2 Claire Tuggle 1:58.59
3 Missy Franklin 1:58.67
4 Chelsea Chenault 1:59.14
5 Quinn Carrozza 1:59.19
6 Melissa Trueblood 2:00.00
7 Katie Ledecky 2:00.01
8 Taylor Ruck 2:00.14
9 Ella Ristic 2:01.11
10 Megan Romano 2:01.32

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Mark Wigger
6 years ago

Go Claire!! WOW!!

Yozhik
6 years ago

I think that Claire Tuggle put everything she had at the moment in this prelim race. Getting on A final was probably the main goal at this meet. She skipped 800 yesterday to stay fresh for today race. And 800 fit better her style and abilities than 200. She was just 0.1 short for the A final race.
I think that probability of her swimming faster in B final than it was this morning isn’t high.

Taa
Reply to  Yozhik
6 years ago

Likely she is targeting juniors next week. The psych sheet is up she is at least doing the 200-400-800 at first look. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a slight drop tonight that B final is going to be pretty fast.

Yozhik
Reply to  Taa
6 years ago

I think that only Ledecky and maybe, I repeat maybe, Manuel and Comerford swam conservatively this morning. Because for everybody else to be in A final was a big question mark. Our super sprinters wouldn’t get upset most likely should they don’t get to the final. Therefore I think these three will be faster tonight. Cannot say anything like that about any other finalists and Claire Tuggle.

Kirk Nelson
6 years ago

Sippy Brennan? I take it that’s her name now, but it seems strange to retroactively change her name on a record. I’ve never seen that done before.

Love to Swim
Reply to  Kirk Nelson
6 years ago

It is still written as Cynthia Woodhead at ISHOF and FINA database.

Becky D
Reply to  Kirk Nelson
6 years ago

Yeah, it kinda struck me as odd, too. If you’re going to update someone’s last name in order to be more accurate, do you keep the first name as “Sippy?”

Becky D
6 years ago

I know this record needs to be broken, but I feel like it will break the final tie to my swimming past in the 70s. (Berlin ’78 — woohoo! Onto Moscow! Oops.)

bobo gigi
Reply to  Becky D
6 years ago

Pictures of this race of 1978 at 3 min 22 in that video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3j13TRVY0s

Kirk Nelson
Reply to  bobo gigi
6 years ago

Wow, that was some turnover she had!

Becky D
Reply to  Kirk Nelson
6 years ago

Two beat kick: It used to be a thing.

Vast and Furious
6 years ago

Didn’t realize Taylor Ruck was American…

nuotofan
6 years ago

I know that it’s a “vexata quaestio”, but never understood why Usa Swimming goes on with its bizarre way of selection for Worlds in pre-Olympic years (particularly the timing: 12 months ahead, instead of one month).
Gretchen Walsh, Claire Tuggle and many other youngsters in plain swimming growth, could have something to say with regard to.
And then the inefficiency to select swimmers who, at Worlds 12 months later, i.e. at the end of another swimming season, could be in a totally different shape.

Horninco
Reply to  nuotofan
6 years ago

It’s as if they want to have the national teams set for two years and allow everyone to train and plan accordingly for the next 24 months leading up to OT’s.

Yozhik
Reply to  nuotofan
6 years ago

These youngsters that you mentioned will be no doubts significantly better in a year But still not fast enough to make difference within top American leading swimmers. Neither at 100 where Manuel and Comerford are reigning with very strong back-end support for relay. nor at 200 where Americans are represented with very strong swimmers.
Those girls need more than a year to be in the mix with leaders. So American team won’t suffer for not having them competing at WC in 2019. The Olympic year will be completely different story and these girls will have plenty of opportunities to prove their rights to be called an Olympian.

nuotofan
Reply to  Yozhik
6 years ago

Perhaps you’re right, perhaps not with regards to those swimmers I mentioned, but
1) There are also relays besides individual races
2) My point was general: nobody knows what could happen with a swimming phenom in a year.

Baker-King-Worrell-Manuel
Reply to  nuotofan
6 years ago

Exactly.

Nobody knows what could happen with a swimming phenom in a year.

Horninco
6 years ago

Someone needs to get her a silicone swim cap!

Hswimmer
Reply to  Horninco
6 years ago

Maybe she prefers latex?

Random Guniea Pig
6 years ago

She’s amazing! Really hope she can get the record tonight.

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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