2017 SPEEDO WINTER JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 6 – 9
- Allan Jones Aquatic Center (East)/University of Iowa Recreation Center (West)
- Knoxville, TN (East)/Iowa City, IA (West)
- Live results (East)/Live results (West)
- Meet Central (East)/Meet Central (West)
- Psych Sheet (East)/Psych Sheet (West)
From our Winter Juniors – East Day 2 Finals recap:
GIRLS’ 200 IM – FINALS
Short Course Juniors meet (combined) record – Alex Walsh, Nashville Aquatic Club, 1:54.48 – 2016
- GOLD: Alex Walsh, Nashville Aquatic Club, 1:54.02
- SILVER: Olivia Carter, Enfinity Aquatics, 1:56.83
- BRONZE: Kelly Pash, Carmel Swim Club, 1:58.02
Olivia Carter took the lead up front, putting up a blistering 24.48 fly split en route to her 53.06 at the half. Meet Record holder Alex Walsh was waiting in the wings, however, and made her move to run Carter down on the breast leg. Walsh outsplit Carter by 2 seconds on that 50, and continued to build her lead with a 26.44 closing split to win it in record time with a 1:54.02 to Carter’s 1:56.83. That knocked close to a half second off Walsh’s best and was a best for Carter by a second.
That time by Walsh was a new 15-16 NAG Record, taking down the nearly 10-year-old former record of 1:54.03 set by Dagny Knutson back in 2008.
Kelly Pash clipped her best time by a couple of tenths to take the bronze in 1:58.02, using her front half speed to take the edge over Chelsea Piers’ Kate Douglass (1:58.12). Nashville Aquatic Club teammates Ella Nelson (1:59.39) and Allie Raab (1:59.58) battled it out for 5th, with Nelson holding off Raab.
Dynamo’s 15-year-old Tristen Ulett had the 5th fastest time of the night with her 1:58.50 from the B final. Ulett took nearly 3 seconds off her time today. SwimMAC’s Julia Menkhaus had the 6th fastest time of the night with a 1:59.22 for 2nd in the B final.
for as fast as that it, it was pretty sloppy. Terrible start and turns (although decent walls). This gal could drop way more time… which is scary to think about.
I didn’t want to bash her because she had a new meet record, but I agree. The start could have been a lot faster, the turns were extremely slow for how good of a swimmer she is… If I were her coach, I would fix these things immediately. But yes, when she does fix these things, she will drop even more time!
Now that you mention it, those fixes are very noticeable. The biggest thing I saw was the circle swimming going on during portions of her race. That, alone, could of gotten her under 1:54. Into the 1:53.6-8 range