LA Invite Day Four Finals: Matt Grevers, Jake Packard, Justin James with Meet Records

2014 LA Invite

• Thursday, July 17th-Sunday, July 20th
• Thursday 4PM, Friday-Sunday Prelims 8:30AM/Finals 5PM (Pacific Time)
• Uytengsyu Aquatics Facility, University of Southern California
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results

Day Four

Women’s 100 Fly Final

It was a great start to the final session of the Los Angeles Invitational, with Kendyl Stewart of North Coast Aquatics and Felicia Lee of Stanford going head-to-head in the 100 fly. Stewart went out in a 27-mid, a half-second faster than Lee, but Lee nearly caught her on the second 50. They finished 1-2 in 58.60 and 58.80, respectively.

Australian Marieke D’Cruz touched out her teammate Yolane Kukla 59.78 to 59.80 for third place.

Cal’s Kelly Naze (1:00.06) and Caitlin Leverenz (1:00.37) both improved on their prelims times and ended up in fifth and sixth. Bruins’ Noelle Tarazona touched out Celina Li of Pleasanton by .02 for seventh with 1:00.68.

Men’s 100 fly podium L to R: Nathanial Romeo, Giles Smith, Maclin Davis, Alex Valente

Men’s 100 Fly Final

In the men’s race it was all Giles Smith. The Phoenix Swim Club All-American turned first at the wall and then really brought it home. His 52.79 put him nearly a body length in front of second-place Nathaniel Romeo of Australia.

Maclin Davis and Buenaventura’s Alex Valente tied for third with 54.09. They were only slightly in front of Brian Stevens of Tucson Ford (54.14) and Australia’s Kurt Herzog (54.29) and Alexander Graham (54.53). Utah’s Alex Fernandes took eighth with 55.29.

Women’s 1500 Free

Erin Emery of Sandpipers had won the morning session of 1500s with 16:46.96, so that was the time to beat headed into the heat swimming in finals.

La Mirada’s Taylor Ault knocked nearly 30 seconds off her seed time and took the evening heat with 16:48.62. Finishing second in the final heat, and thus third overall, was Megan Rankin of Golden West. Her time was 16:55.77.

The rest of the top eight all came from the evening heat: Kelsey Cummings, Irvine NovAquatics’ Brittany Kampfer, Kendall Brown of AquaZot, Buenaventura’s Brigid McNally, and Swim Pasadena’s Caroline Lepesant.

Women’s 100 back podium L to R: Missy Franklin, Elizabeth Pelton, Mikkayla Sheridan. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Women’s 100 Back Final

Elizabeth Pelton and Missy Franklin were in lanes 3 and 5, respectively, having qualified just behind Australia’s Holly Barratt in prelims.

The Cal teammates both went out about a 6/10 faster than in the morning, and both brought it home a second faster. They were together at the 50 turn, at which point Pelton began to inch ahead of Franklin. But in the last 25 meters it looked like Franklin might catch her… and then… it looked like they touched at the same time. A look at the scoreboard showed Pelton with 1:00.57, Franklin 1:00.70.

Mikkayla Sheridan of Australia was third in 1:02.20. Shani Burleigh of Australia went 1:02.33 for fourth; then came Taylor Schick of Tucson Ford (1:02.61), Madison White of Crow Canyon (1:02.62), Australia’s Holly Barratt (1:03.18), and Bonnie Brandon from Tucson Ford (1:03.54).

Men’s 100 Back Final

It was just a couple of hundredths. Top qualifier Ashley Delaney of Australia was in lane 4, meet record holder Matt Grevers in lane 5. They were only a couple hundredths apart at the turn. Delaney started to inch ahead of Grevers. They came in under the flags; Grevers was catching him. They finished together in a wave. And then the announcer pronounced Grevers the winner in a new meet time of 54.00. Delaney’s 54.03 was also under the previous record, set by Grevers in 2011.

As Grevers said in an interview at the conclusion of his race, being 6’8″ has helped him many times in his life.

Scotland’s Charlie Boldison was third in 55.34. Bryce Bohman of Tucson Ford went 56.36 for fourth. Trojans’ Luca Spinazzola (56.90), Austin Ringquist of Ford (57.86), CLASS Aquatics’ Chase Bloch (58.00), and Jack Descombes of Stanford (58.47) rounded out the “A” final.

Jack McLoughlin during the 800. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Men’s 800 Free

The time to beat in finals was the 8:13.81 that Logan Houck of Sandpipers went in the morning heats.

Top-seeded Jack McLoughlin of Australia, who had finished second in the 1500 on Saturday, established the pace early on. Ryan Kao of La Mirada went with him and tried to stay on his hip for as long as he could.

McLoughlin got in front by about two seconds at the 200. From there they each split 1:01-highs until about the 600 when McLoughlin began to descend. He finished with a 8:04.89 to Kao’s 8:10.41.

Houck ended up with the third-fastest time. The rest of the top eight included: Christopher Webb of Ford, Scott Simmer of TSM, Ty Fowler of Ford, Alex Peterson of AquaZot, and Ted Singley of Trojans.

Jessica Hansen. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Women’s 100 Breast Final

Jessica Hansen came in with the top qualifying time; Jessica Hardy was next to her in lane 5. Hardy was out first, but just barely: she turned in 32.21 to Hansen’s 32.28.  Hansen dug in and controlled the second half of the race, eventually winning in 1:07.88 to Hardy’s 1:08.03.

Stanford’s Katie Olsen just touched out her teammate Sarah Haase, 1:09.83 to 1:09.86.

Australia’s Samantha Marshall (1:10.94), Hayley Monteith of Scotland (1:11.19), Heidi Poppe of Stanford (1:11.30), and Nikol Popov of Canyons (1:12.01) completed the “A” final.

Men’s 100 Breast Final

Australia’s Jake Packard led wire-to-wire out of lane 4, and ended up winning with a new meet record of 1:00.65. He broke a 1:00.82 mark set by Kosuke Kitajima in 2010.

Kevin Cordes of Tucson Ford took second with 1:01.45, just edging out Nicholas Schafer of Australia who finished with 1:01.47. Anton McKee, who had broken the meet record when he won the 200 breast, took fourth with 1:01.63.

Buster Sykes of Australia (1:02.01), Andrew Poznikoff from Simon Fraser (1:02.21), Azad Al-barazi of Trojans (1:02.29) and Kitajima (1:02.38) made up the rest of the final.

Women’s 200 free podium L to R: Kylie Palmer, Missy Franklin, Chelsea Chenault. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Women’s 200 Free Final

Missy Franklin went out a second faster than in the morning, in 57.85. She was two seconds ahead of her earlier pace by the 150 and way out front. Then Kylie Palmer started to make a move on Franklin. Although the Australian outsplit Franklin over the last 50 it wasn’t enough and Franklin won 1:58.38 to 1:58.90.

Terrapins’ Chelsea Chenault had a great second half as well; she ended up third with 1:59.76.

Men’s 200 IM Final

Justin James of Australia broke Hidemasa Sano’s 2009 meet record of 2:00.59 with his 2:00.49 win. He led from start to finish, building the distance between himself and the rest of the field with each 50.

Mark Szaranek of Scotland picked up second place with 2:05.10.

Fullerton’s Hayden Duplechain, who had dropped 5 in prelims, went another 8/10 faster in finals and took third with 2:06.78.