Lucia Davis, Lauren Burckel Snag Trials Cuts on Day 1 at Mt. Hood Sectionals

2019 Speedo Sectionals – Mt. Hood

• July 18-21, 2019
• Hood Aquatics Center, Mt. Hood, OR
• Meet information
• Psych sheet
• Results (Meet Mobile): ‘2019 Speedo Sectionals – Mt Hood’

Lucia Davis, a rising sophomore at Boise State, and Lauren Burckel, a rising sophomore at Washington State, punched their tickets to Omaha on Day 1 of Speedo Sectionals at Mt. Hood. Davis took 12.7 seconds off her previous best time of 8:59.93 to win the 800 free for the second year in a row. This time she clocked a 8:47.25 to make the U.S. Olympic Trials cut by .86. Davis came to the wall almost 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Kathryn Shanley of Foothills Swim Team (8:56.94), whose 10.7-second drop put her under 9 minutes for the first time. Davis’ Bronco Swim Club teammate Hayley Hill (8:57.30) also cracked the 9-minute barrier for the first time with her third-place finish.

Burckel, representing Cougar Aquatics and entered with 2:37.17, dropped 3.3 seconds in prelims to qualify second with 2:33.86, then took another 3 seconds off that time in finals to win the event with her first Olympic Trials cut. She dropped 6.37 seconds in all and cleared the OT cut of 2:33.29 by 2.5 seconds with her final time of 2:30.80. Runner-up Sakiko Shimizu of Phoenix Swim Club was more than half a second back with 2:31.36, a PB by .18. Shimizu won the 200 fly in 2:14.67. Seeded with a SCM time of 2:06.30, she went 2:16.46 in prelims, then dropped 1.79 seconds in finals to win the event by a body length over Wisconsin commit Mikayla Seigal (2:15.64).

Both the women’s and men’s 100 freestyle events were nailbiters. USC 2020 commit Kaitlyn Dobler of The Dolphins Portland held her #1 seeding and won the women’s 100 free in 56.53, a mere .05 off her seed time. Elizabeth Cook of Tualatin Hills clocked a 56.81 for second place, beating her seed time by 7/10 and touching out Katharine Berkoff of Missoula Aquatic Club (56.97). Hugo Sykes of University of Denver Hilltoppers won the men’s race with a PB by .81. He was seeded with 52.03 and went 51.54 in prelims before dropping down to 51.22 in finals. Texas commit Caspar Corbeau, fresh off the European Junior Championships where he represented Netherlands, finished second in 51.40, a PB by .32.

Other event winners:

• Kevin Jackson of King Aquatic Club took 1.6 seconds off a two-month-old PB to win the 800 free with 8:14.78. Notre Dame commit Luke Thornbrue of Hillsboro Swim Team touched out Neptune’s Ellis Bohon, 8:23.92 to 8:24.05, for second place. Both were best times.
• Daniel Chang crushed the field in the 200 breast. Seeded with a yards time of 1:56.34, he qualified first for finals with 2:15.58 then won with 2:15.20, coming in 3 seconds ahead of Harrison Wayner of University of Utah, whose 2:18.19 represented a 1.09-second improvement off his seed time.
• Cole Giandinoso of Utah Utes improved his entry time by .83 in winning the 200 fly with 2:02.38. Coming in second was Scottsdale Aquatic Club’s Daniel Matheson with 2:04.06, which is his best time by 3.3 seconds and catapults him to #6 among 16-year-old boys for the year.
• University of Denver Hilltoppers won both the women’s (1:45.89) and men’s (1:32.94) 200 free relays. Jenna Smith (26.56), Emily Kahn (26.84), Aysia Leckie (26.38), and Anna Shaw (26.11) earned the gold for the women, while Jackson Gainer (23.63), Darragh Mahns (23.29), Hugo Sykes (23.27), and Fischer Basham (22.75) combined to win for the men.