Women’s 1500 Free
North Baltimore’s Gillian Ryan wrapped a distance trifecta with a third win of the meet, and a third individual Meet Record at that, thanks to her16:14.67 win. That sits just behind Becca Mann as the second-fastest time by an American this year, though many of the best haven’t swum this non-Olympic race in an Olympic year.
She took the victory by nearly a full 50 over Sarasota’s Taylor Katz in 16:43.61.
The third-place finisher was 12-year old Isabelle Rongione from the FISH team in Virginia in 16:48.12. This isn’t an event that many 12-year olds excel at being so young, but she destroyed the National Age Group Record in the race by 7 seconds. The old mark was set by Olympic finalist Becca Mann two years ago in 16:55.79.
Women’s 200 IM
What more appropriate way for Allie Szekely to end this amazing meet than with another win and a best time of 2:15.98. She actually had the slowest 50 freestyle (33.03) of the entire final heat, but her lead was so huge by that point that she still won by over a second. That best time puts her third on the all-time list in 13-14’s (behind only future superstars Missy Franklin and Katie Hoff). She will now end the season ranked #1 in the country in her age group in three different events: the 100 breast, the 200 breast, and the 200 IM.
Allison Brown from the Pleasanton Seahawks took 2nd in 2:17.21, followed by another 14-year old Katherine Drabot in 2:17.54.
Continuing the theme of the event (or, realistically setting the tone before the A-Final), yet another 14-year old, Meghan Small, had a great swim to win the B-Final in 2:16.71. That’s the 7th-best time in history by a 13-14.
Men’s 200 IM
The boys of CUBU struck it big for the second time in as many nights as we saw another win from one of their 15 year olds on Friday night. Andrew Seliskar won the boys’ 200 IM in 2:03.39. He was a hair faster at the Olympic Trials, as he used a very good front-half to get a big lead going into the breaststroke.
Seliskar is by no means a weak breaststroker; in fact he’s quite good on the third leg of his IM. But he’s not quite as good as the older and stronger Steven Stumph from Orinda Aquatics. Stumph pulled to about half-a-second back, but would get no closer. He touched 2nd in 2:03.96.
200 freestyle winner Michael Domagala from Asphalt Green scored a bronze here in 2:05.21.
Women’s 50 Freestyle
North Baltimore’s Cierra Runge gave her team the bookend wins on this final day of competition: both in the longest and shortest races of the meet, and the first and last women’s events. She topped the 50 free in 25.97 – not quite a personal best, but the third time in 2012 that she’s gone under 26 seconds. She barely even snuck into this final as the 8th qualifier, and now will walk away with a second individual Junior National title.
Nobody in this final, or the B-Final for that matter, was older than 16, including runner-up Nora McCullagh in a best time of 26.04, and Pleasanton’s Iris Brand in 26.18 for 3rd. The Academy Bullets’ Mary Schneider looked much better in this 50 than she did in the 100, and was .01 back for 4th in 26.19.
Men’s 50 Freestyle
The boys from Bolles weren’t able to recreate their 1-2 finish from the 100, but they did take wins in the A and B finals. Santo Condorelli was first overall in 22.90, and 15-year old Caeleb Dressel wound up 9th in 23.50.
Condorelli was the only swimmer under 23 seconds in this race, and is in fact the youngest swimmer in the country this year to do so. The only other junior is Erik Risolvato, who is 18.
Brett Ringold from the North Texas Nadadores was 2nd in 23.04, and Connor Black, who won the 100 fly earlier in the meet, was 3rd in 23.21.
Men’s 800 Freestyle
Familiar names topped this men’s 800 free, with Mission Viejo’s Janardan Burns winning in 8:07.80. Burns swam a very controlled front-half of 4:05.00, but took the race over around the 500 meter mark with a 4:02.8 back-half.
Clifford Goertermiller had the lead after 400 meters, but couldn’t hold off Burns. That’s a big surprising, after Goertermiller was the faster of the pair in the 1500 (.01 better than Burns for 3rd place).
Medley Relays
In the women’s 400 medley relay, the SwimMAC quartet of Kathleen Baker, Alexandra Martelle, Elsa Welshofer, and Nora McCullagh won in 4:12.81. Unlike in the 800 the night before (with the same four aside from Martelle) that broke the 15-16 National Age Group Record, this team came up just four-tenths short of doing the same. Also unlike the 800 free relay, however, this group ran away for the event victory.
Second place went to the York YMCA in 4:16.07.
In the men’s race, the Terrapins Swim Team won in a new Meet Record of 3:45.50. Brandon James, Christian Brown, Justin Lynch, and Ryan Barsanti combined to knock more than two seconds off of the old record that was swum by the Schroeder YMCA in 2008.
SwimMAC touched 2nd in this race to seal the team’s overall Junior National team championship.
Meet Awards
North Baltimore’s Gillian Ryan and Central Bucks’ Allie Szekely were the two stars of this meet on the women’s side, but it was Ryan and her three Meet Records that took the high-point award with 97. Szekely scored 92 points for second. CUBU’s Andrew Seliskar won the boys’ honor with 72 points, ahead of a pair from Orinda Aquatics in Steven Stumph and Sven Campbell.
The overall team point results show that SwimMAC ran away with the team title. The North Baltimore ladies, by themselves, placed 2nd overall with 284 points.
1 SwimMAC Carolina 394 50
2 North Baltimore Aquatic Club 284
3 Pleasanton Seahawks  277
4 Mission Viejo Nadadores 231
5 King Aquatic Club 219
Isabelle Rongione also broke the girls 11-12 800 meter freestyle record with her split in the 800 meter freestyle with a time of 8:55.43 (her best time by .01 second)
😉
Nbac would have taken swimmac to town on the combined if Kalisz had gone to the meet. He would have won 5 events maybe more. But he stayed home to focus on jr pan PAC… Also Morris would have factored into a number of races had she been at juniors over us open. Very impressive for coach Posegay in only his first season with the team! Well done
Every team left someone home who is prepping for college moves, taking a rest after Trials, or swam the week before at Open… The ‘what if’ game is silly… These are the kids who showed up, these were the scores…
This is a good and very valid statement! I agree fully. I just wanted to point out that nbac is relavent on the boys side as well even if they didn’t score at this meet.
Another notable swim was by Matthew Hirschberger in the men’s 800 meter freestyle. At thirteen years of age he posted an 8:20.55!
Is this the last big meet of the LC year? Pan Pac jrs is next week but don’t the Japanese or Chinese have a big meet at the end of August?
The Japanese have their high school championships right now, where an 18-year old swam the third fastest 200 breaststroke in the world.
Unlike the men’s side it’s incredible how good looks freestyle in USA on the women’s side for the next years. Great meet for Gillian Ryan. Great end of meet for Isabella Rongione.
Allie Szekely has to work freestyle but the talent is huge. When she will be taller with more muscles and with a modern suit the show will be amazing. I’m not a specialist but why does she swim backstroke with a very slow rhythm of arms like that? It’s beautiful but it looks like she sleeps during backstroke. Her butterfly is very good and her breaststroke is fantastic.
What is the time of Kathleen Baker on backstroke at the start of the relay?
I think that if you look up in the rules for combined team points, you must score in both men and women. Therefore, NBAC does not place in the combined team scores. Check out the official team scores at http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/dc5cb5cc-3cd0-4d9c-8284-c062f9c161d5/team%20scores.pdf
the NBAC girls won every freestyle event!! very impressive