Katie Grimes Swims #2 17-18 500 Free; Weinstein #3 15-16

by Laura Rosado 8

December 16th, 2023 Club, News, Previews & Recaps

2023 DECEMBER HUNTINGTON BEACH SECTIONALS

  • December 14-18, 2023
  • Huntington Beach, CA
  • SCY (25 yards)
  • Meet Mobile: 2023 CA Dec CA CV Speedo Sectionals at GWSC

It was a big night for 500 freestylers in California. While Luka Mijatovic was on a tear in the men’s 500 free, Sandpiper teammates Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein put on a show in the women’s event to climb the age group rankings and finish 1-2.

Weinstein led for the majority of the race, flipping 0.85 seconds ahead of Grimes at the 250 mark. Grimes started to narrow the gap in the back-half, using a big 26.18 on the final 50 to finally overtake Weinstein and take the win in a new best time of 4:28.27.

That places Grimes #2 in the 17-18 age group, leap-frogging former Sandpiper teammate Bella Sims to sit between her and Katie Ledecky. With that swim, she became the third 17-18 year-old in history to break 4:30, though she had already done it in the 15-16 age group.

Weinstein touched second in 4:29.38, lowering her previous best time by over 3.5-seconds. She jumps from #5 to #3 in the 15-16 age group, behind Summer McIntosh (who represents Canada) and Katie Ledecky.

See the split comparison from their race below.

Katie Grimes Claire Weinstein
#2 17-18 #3 15-16
100y 52.55 52.22
200y 54.44 54.10
300y 54.10 53.95
400y 53.90 54.43
500y 53.28 54.68
Total Time 4:28.27 4:29.38

Grimes finished in 1:46.99 and closed in a 1:47.18, which would be a great high school time as an independent 200 free.

Grimes and Weinstein cleared the field by over 17 seconds. Their teammate Applejean Gwinn also hit a best time to finish in a distant 3rd (4:46.87), dropping over five seconds for her first sub-4:50 swim. She closed in a 55-second final 100 yard split.

Notably, that was Grimes’ second win of the night. She also won the 200 fly (1:54.46) to open the session.

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Seli's_my_baby
10 months ago

Is Grime’s going to swim in NCAA? Which School?

Lance
10 months ago

Ron is BY FAR, The best MD/D coach in the nation!

jess
10 months ago

I,,,, half of the women ever under 4:30 are sandpipers? Their performance in mid distance & distance is wild.

(With Katie/ Bella 2nd &3rd all time US performers and 3rd/4th all time since summer has also gone sub 4:30)

jablo
10 months ago

What was Sim’s time again?

Michael Andrew Wilson
Reply to  jablo
10 months ago

Sims went 4:28.6 and Grimes 4:29.5 at 2022 winter juniors.

bubo
10 months ago

Applejean Gwinn is such a goated name

Kevin
10 months ago

Nice progression swim by Grimes. With the obvious exception of the first 100 due to the start, getting faster every 100 is tough. Opening in 1:46.99 and then closing in a 1:47.18. Great swim. Actually don’t know if distance swimmers practice that. I know it’s a staple in marathon running training and usually done on the 1 mile splits, But 2 to 4 hours is physiologically different than 4 – 16 minutes so I just don’t know if you would get beneficial muscle and energy system recruitment responses training for shorter time targets. I don’t really recall doing progression runs for 5k training, though I did for 10k.

Anyway that jumped out at me from her splits and I thought… Read more »

Hank
Reply to  Kevin
10 months ago

It is incredibly difficult to progressive neg split a 500. Unlike running you have no watch to check your splits and moreover in swimming it often feels like you are getting faster when you’re not— at least for mere mortals.