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.

 

 

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Pvdh
5 years ago

Doin a little GOAT hunting

Joe
5 years ago

DART not Sierra Marlins

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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