Urlando Scratches 200 Back, Going All-in on 200 Fly at Jrs West

2018 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – West

• December 5th-8th, 2018
• Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, Austin, Texas
• SCY (25y) pool
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results

Gianluca Urlando of DART swimming, who has already broke 2 National Age Group Records at 2018 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – West, will forego this 3rd opportunity in finals on Day 4 to focus on the 4th. Urlando came out of morning heats on Saturday with the top seed times in both the 200 back (1:42.11) and 200 fly (1:44.84) heading into finals. He improved his seed time by 1.26 seconds in the backstroke but remains 1.32 seconds off the meet record (Jacob Pebley’s 1:40.79 from 2011) and 1.21 seconds away from Ryan Murphy’s 15-16 NAG of 1:40.90, also from 2011. His lifetime-best 200 fly, on the other hand, 1:42.49, is already faster than the meet record (1:43.64 from Baylor’s Robert McHugh in 2013) and a mere .39 off Michael Phelps’ 2002 15-16 NAG Record of 1:42.10. Urlando has opted out of the backstroke and will swim the butterfly, in the last individual event of the night.

The absence of the #1 seed in the 200 back will allow three swimmers to move up a final: #9 Shane Blinkman of St Croix Swim Club (1:46.63, PB by 4/10) will compete in lane 8 of the A final; #17 Kevin Childs from Canyons Aquatic Club (1:47.81, PB by 1.9) will go into the B final; and #25 Nathan Quarterman from Boise YMCA Swim Team (1:48.72, PB by 3.9) will get a second swim in the C final.

The only other notable scratches in the boys’ meet came from Kevin Vargas of La Mirada and David Mertz of Neptune who opted out of the A-final of the 1650 free.

The girls’ meet is more notable for who didn’t scratch than who did: Katharine Berkoff from Missoula Aquatic Club is the top seed in successive events: the 200 back and the 100 free. She plans to race in both. Opting out of the 100 free, however, are #19 Justina Kozan of Brea Aquatics (50.10), who is favoring the C final of the 200 fly; #21 Lindsay Looney of Metroplex Aquatics (50.20), competing in the A final of the 200 fly; and #23 Alexandra Crisera from Beach Cities (50.23), who is seeded 3rd in the the 200 back. That opens up 3 spaces in the C final for #25-27 Amy Feddersen of Ames Cyclone Aquatic Club (50.34), Sierra Marlins’ Chloe Clark (50.45), and Jada Surrell-Norwood from Denver Swim Academy (50.46).

In the 200 fly, #17 Sarah DiMeco of Bellevue Club Swim Team (2:00.55) ceded her place to #25 Sarah Kutz of Austin Swim Club (2:01.61, PB by 3.4); DiMeco is in the A final of the 1650 free at the beginning of the evening session.

Finals begin at 5:00 P.M. Central Time.