2015 SPEEDO WINTER JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS – WEST
- University of Texas’s Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center -Austin, TX
- Wednesday, December 9 – Saturday, December 11
- (Bonus long course meter time trials on Sunday, December 12)
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (Th-Sat), Wed. Timed Finals 6PM (U.S. Central Time)
- Meet Page
- Psych Sheets
- Live results
GIRLS 500 FREE- PRELIM
Two of the top three seeds going into tonight’s final were not ranked in the top eight on the psyche sheets, making major time drops to shake up the field in the first distance event of the meet. Evie Pfeifer (UN-OZ) cut 5.05 seconds from her seed time to move up from 11th to 3rd, touching in 4:44.51. Even more impressive is the top seed, Erica Sullivan from the Sandpipers of Nevada who was entered at the 25th seed with an LCM entry time. Her previous SCY best time was 4:52.22 from Winter Juniors last December, meaning she cut nearly nine seconds to move ahead of the field in the prelim, touching at 4:43.37. Only two swimmers were entered with seed times faster than Sullivan, those being fifth place (4:45.31) prelim finisher, Ozaukee’s Katie Drabot who was entered at 4:43.09, and Scottsdale’s 15 year old Taylor Ruck who was entered at 4:41.38 but failed to make the A-final, finishing twelfth place with 4:49.30. Rounding out the top 8 were La Mirada’s Taylor Ault (4:44.37,) Mansfield Aquatics’ Haley Yelle (4:44.63,) Davis Arden Racing’s Chenoa Devine (4:45.67,) Nitro’s Karling Hemstreet (4:46.77,) and Patriot Aquatics’ Reilly Lanigan (4:47.13.)
BOYS 500 FREE- PRELIM
Nitro claimed three of the top four spots in the 500 free prelim. Sean Grieshop (4:17.69,) Taylor Abbott (4:21.02,) and Chris Yeager (4:24.39) shut out all but Edina Swim Club’s Johnthomas Larson (4:23.25) from the middle lanes for the final. Notable move-ups into the top eight were Scottsdale’s Aaron Apel who cut 3.64 seconds from his 13th seed to land 5th with 4:24.40, Loveland’s Liam Gately who dropped 4.52 to move from 17th to 7th with 4:24.70, and the Sandpipers’ Carter Grimes who moved up from the 46th seed in the psyche sheet to take 8th with 4:25.42. Grimes was actually entered with the 8th seeded LCM entry time, and his best SCY performance was 4:32.84 almost a year ago making this a spectacular improvement at a critical time. AAAA’s Zach Yeadon cut nearly two seconds from his previous best to take the 6th position at 4:24.65.
GIRLS 200 IM- PRELIM
Ozaukee’s Katie Drabot leads the field into tonight’s final with a personal best 1:57.90. She was not alone in dipping below the two-minute mark as Boulder City’s Abbey Richter dropped .83 to land second with 1:59.51. The most notable move-up to squeak into the top eight of this tight field was Palo Alto’s Grace Zhao who dropped 1.92 to climb from the 29th seed to 6th. Brea Aquatics’ Kenisha Liu (2:00.02,) Palo Alto’s Chloe Isleta (2:00.03,) Nitro’s Regan Barney (2:00.18,) Unattached Clayton Shaw Park’s Evie Pfeifer (2:00.57,) and the Sandpiper’s Isabella Goldsmith (2:00.78) complete the list of tonight’s A-finalists. Keaton Blovad from Tualitin Hills, whose second place seed time of 1:58.71 was notably missing from preliminary results.
BOYS 200 IM- PRELIM
Michael Andrew held nothing back in the preliminary round of the 200 IM, turning in 1:43.94 to set a new 15-16 NAG Record, dipping .09 under Andrew Seliskar’s 1:44.03 from 2014. Andrew’s splits were 21.84, 25.89, 30.24, 25.97.
Only two more of the top eight seeds in this event managed to earn a spot in the A-final tonight, those being Nitro’s Sean Grieshop with 1:46.58 for second and Peak Swimming’s Jack Xie with 1:47.11 for third. The rest of the field moved in with improvements, as Palo Alto claimed the 4th, 5th and 6th place spots on strong performances from Benjamin Ho (1:47.80,) Jeremy Babinet (1:47.87,) and Joe Molinari (1:48.11.) The 7th and 8th place spots were claimed by Sierra Marlins’ Bryce Mefford at 1:48.59 and Jeffco Hurricanes’ Michael Zarian at 1:48.69.
GIRLS 50 FREE- PRELIM
Katie Drabot earned her second top seed and third A-final appearance for the session with her 22.53 finish. That swim was her personal best by .11, and is .29 ahead of 2nd place performer, Palo Alto’s Grace Zhao who turned in 22.82. The only other swimmer ranked in the top 8 coming into the event who made the A-final was third place Julia Cook (22.96) from Aggie Swim Club. Diablo Aquatics’ Emma Cottrill turned in the most impressive improvement to qualify for the top 8 with a jump from 24th to 4th, improving her personal best from 23.24 to 23.03. Greater Nebraska’s Olivia Calegan (23.04,) Ozaukee’s Skylar Fore (23.05,) Crow Canyon’s Maddie Murphy (23.07,) and Dolphins’ Alayna Connor (23.08) each improved, but less than a tenth from their seed times, which still proved to be enough to earn a chance to compete in the A-final tonight.
BOYS 50 FREE- PRELIM
Scottsdale’s Ryan Hoffer dropped .13 from his personal best, finishing a clear .52 ahead of Michael Andrew to take the top position for tonight’s 50 free final with 19.25. Andrew also turned in a PR with 19.77, just ahead of two more sub-20 second prelim swims from Iowa Flyers’ Mark McGlaughlin (19.92) and PASA’s Albert Gwo (19.93.) Scottsdale’s Jack Blake was 5th at 20.22, but they were not the only team with two in the big heat as the North Texas Nadadores landed Jack LeVant at 6th with 20.37 and Adam Koster at 8th with 20.43, split by a 20.38 finish from Portland Aquatics’ Sid Farber.
Stay tuned to SwimSwam for updates as the meet marches on this weekend.
Don’t know if this has ever been brought up before but since MA is a “Proffessional swimmer” why would he be elligble to swim or want to swim in a junior national meet. Wouldn’t it be allowing a swimmer an unfair advantage specifically that he is able to receive the top performance suits by way of endorsements compared to his opponents at a junior national event.
Junior simply refers to age, it has nothing to do with professional vs amateur status. In the same way that juniors go to senior level meets and compete against sponsored professionals, their shouldn’t be anything wrong with a professional going to a junior meet if he is, by definition, a junior.
Just my 2 cents, I know this is a hotly debated topic.
Weird to not see Ruck qualify for the A-Final.
Yesterday already her anchor leg was average.
I would have loved to see a real Andrew vs Hoffer in the 50 free but with Andrew swimming a 200 IM just before, I think there will not be match.
Andrew is an amazing swimmer but he always signs up for a ton of races. I’d like to see him really focus in a just a couple and see what he is truly capable of doing.
yeesh, his freestyle was slower than his backstroke leg…
19.2 as a high school junior. Good Lord.
I could be completely wrong, but he looked reallyyyy smooth the second 25 like he still had a little bit left in the tank for tonight. We’ll see!
Very impressive swimming. The 19.25 jumped out at me the most. I like the picture of Andrew, but what the heck is USRPT? A team? A company? Strange.
Read the phrase under USRPT on the cap
Seriously…
USRPT is Ultra Short Race Pace Training. It’s the training methodology that Michael Andrew follows. Some other teams and coaches follow it as well, or incorporate it into their training.
G3, I take it you don’t spend much time on SwimSwam?
I wish I could go back to a time when I didn’t know what USRPT was. I even agree with most of what it is, it just gets a bit much around here.
The Lochte video when he had no idea what it was is my favorite thing.
I wish I could go back to a time when I didn’t know what USRPT was. I even agree with most of what it is, it just gets a bit much around here.
The Lochte video when he had no idea what it was is my favorite thing.
Not that it really matters, but MA’s PR in the 50 is actually a 19.76. Close enough, though.
23.08 swim off in the girls 50 went to Isabella Goldsmith of SAND-CA with a 22.87 and is the 8th seed tonight!