The reigning 5K World Champ Haley Anderson successfully held up her crown at the U.S. Open Water National Championships, taking home the gold in the women’s 5K race Sunday morning.
Showing strategic vision, Anderson led early on, dropped back a bit through the middle of the race and then roared back out to the lead late to seal her national title in just over one hour. Anderson finished at 1:00.08.
Arizona State University’s Tristin Baxter picked up silver, finishing just about a second back at 1:00.09. 20-year-old Eva Fabian once again led a solid portion of the race as she did in the 10K on Friday, and she wound up third overall once again at 1:00:10. Also coming in at ten seconds over an hour was Rally-Sport Aquatic’s Christine Jennings.
Club Wolverine’s Kelsey Cummings went 1:00:12 to round out the top 5. That also closed out the front pack of the field, as the top 5 really separated themselves from the field late.
Nation’s Capital swimmer Kaitlyn Pawlowicz went 1:00:21 for sixth place, followed by the top junior, Regan Kology. Kology was 7th at 1:00:26 to seal her second top-10 finish of these championships. That set off a wave of under-18 swimmers, with NCAP’s Megan Byrnes (1:00:30) and Erin Emery of the Sandpipers of Nevada (1:00:31) coming in 8th and 9th. Byrnes is 15 years of age and Emery 16.
