2016 U.S. WINTER JUNIOR CHAMPS – WEST
- Wednesday, December 7th – Saturday, December 10th
- College Station, TX (Texas A&M University)
- Psych sheets
- Meet information
- Live Results
Day 3 prelims of the 2016 U.S. Winter Junior Championships (West) saw Riptide Swim Team’s Regan Smith tear down the 13-14 National Age Group Record in the 100 fly. Smith threw down a 52.22 to to take the top seed for tonight’s final, giving her a 4 tenth lead over 2nd seed Eva Merrell (52.64). With that, Smith downed the previous NAG Record of 52.97, which was set by Tristen Ulett earlier in 2016.
Smith’s swim cut 2 full seconds off her previous best time, which stood at a 54.29 before this morning’s prelims. She took the race out with a quick 24.45 split at the 50, and followed that up with a quick 27.77 on the back half.
Splits Comparison:
| Swimmer | 1st 50 split | 2nd 50 split | Final time |
| Regan Smith 2016 | 24.45 | 27.77 | 52.22 |
| Tristen Ulett 2016 | 24.93 | 28.04 | 52.97 |
Interestingly, Ulett is still 14 and will be swimming this event tonight at the east meet, so we’ll see if she’s able to take the record back or if Smith can lower it even further. To take the title at the west meet tonight, Smith will have to outpace Merell, who has a career best of 52.14.
How tall is Regan?
She’s about 5’7″
At the East Junior Nationals, Claire Curzan of Raleigh Swimming Association, just 12 years old, was less than a half-second off of Smith’s 11-12 100 fly NAG of 54.73, posting a time of 55.12. So in one day, we could see Smith add her name to one record book but lose her name in another. Will be fun to watch.
Regan Smith has already huge speed and underwaters in fly&back, as seen yesterday in the first half of her 200 im (great final time northeless her problems in the breastroke and an “average” free split).
In the next few years, I think that she’s going to become really great in 100 back and 100 fly in LCM.
The quality at these junior meets is really insane this year. Too bad they don’t swim against each other. But that’s another debate. We see the Michael Phelps generation in action. And they are brilliant.
Regan smith holds the 100 fly 11/12 NAG record in 54.73.
She was in 54.29 at 13 last year. 2.07s time drop today.
I wonder if she’ll swim the final tonight. Maybe she wanted to break the 100 fly record in prelims and focus on the 100 back tonight to break the NAG record held by Alex Walsh in 51.62. If she swims it, the battle against Eva Merrell in final looks great.
Crazy fast swim for the youngster. Is there any distant relation to Will Smith. I wouldn’t be surprised since he has so much talent. His acting skills in I Am Legend were unparalleled. Regan’s swim was blistering fast, hope she can break 52 tonight. Any word on Will Smith’s next movie? Going to the movie theater is always fun
Two people with the last name Smith must be related, there’s no way they couldn’t be with a name so uncommon…