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
1 year ago

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

Lance
1 year ago

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

jess
1 year 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
1 year ago

What was Sim’s time again?

Michael Andrew Wilson
Reply to  jablo
1 year ago

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

bubo
1 year ago

Applejean Gwinn is such a goated name

Kevin
1 year 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
1 year 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.