The 2014 U.S. Winter Junior Nationals kick off tonight from the West Coast. On tap for Day 1 are two timed final relays for each gender: the 4×50 medley relay and the 4×200 free relay.
Last year, meet records went down in 3 of the 4 relays, and this year’s crop of athletes will look to keep pace. Also up for grabs are NAG records in every age group, noted under each event header.
Keep refreshing this page for event-by-event updates from Federal Way.
2014 Winter Junior Nationals
- Federal Way, Washington
- Prelims 9am Pacific / Finals 5 pm Pacific (Thursday relays 6 pm Pacific)
- Psych sheets
- Live results
- Live stream
Girls 4×50 Medley Relay
- Meet: 1:39.27 – SwimMAC, 2013
- 11-12 NAG: 1:47.52 – Aquajets, 2010
- 13-14 NAG: 1:42.77 – Aquajets, 2012
- 15-16 NAG: 1:39.61 – SwimMAC, 2013
- 17-18 NAG: 1:39.40 – SwimMAC, 2014
- 15-18 NAG: 1:39.27 – SwimMAC, 2014
Things started out with a bang at 2014 Winter Juniors with one of the top junior swimmers in the country showing off in the opening event.
Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics led with one leg to go, holding a lead of a second and a half over Canyons Aquatic Club in the fastest-seeded heat. But Canyons anchor Abbey Weitzeil, made things interesting, blasting a gigantic 21.19 freestyle split to bring her team back for the title.
Weitzeil, a commit to the University of California, got started in racing a rival school early, beating that Palo Alto crew. Weitzeil just got back from a trip to Short Course Worlds, where she helped the U.S. Mixed 4×50 medley relay set a world record and win gold. She doesn’t seem to be feeling the ill effects of travel at all, putting up one of the best splits in the entire nation for 2014, even including last year’s NCAA Championships.
Her Canyons team went 1:40.25, just touching out Palo Alto’s 1:40.34. Joining Weitzeil on the relay were Mik Ranslem, Nikol Popov and Tamara Santoyo. Popov, 15, had the field’s best breaststroke split at 27.86.
Palo Alto’s crew was led by one of the event’s top backstroker (Chloe Isleta, 25.39) and its top butterflyer (Heidi Katter, 23.93).
Y-Spartaquatics took third in 1:41.48, getting a 21.79 free split from 17-year-old Katrina Konopka, and Carmel Swim Club took 4th from an early heat, going 1:42.05.
Boys 4×50 Medley Relay
- Meet: 1:27.77 – Bolles, 2011
- 11-12 NAG: 1:46.05 – Tualatin Hills, 2014
- 13-14 NAG: 1:35.94 – Bolles, 2012
- 15-16 NAG: 1:31.90 – Aquazot, 2014
- 17-18 NAG: 1:28.29 – SwimMAC, 2012
- 15-18 NAG: 1:28.29 – SwimMAC, 2012
The boys event saw another great anchor split seal a team’s victory. This time it was Palo Alto that came out on top, getting a 19.71 from 16-year-old Albert Gwo to go 1:29.38, just missing 15-18 National Age Group record by .09 seconds.
Also on the winning team were Benjamin Ho, Joe Kmak and Joe Molinari. Kmak was the field’s second-fastest breaststroker at 24.81, and Kmak was also second-fastest in his stroke, one of just three boys to break 20 on their split.
Second place went to the Bolles School Sharks, who went 1:29.99 with a team of Andy Song An, Andrea Vergani, Javier Barrena and Jabari Baptiste. Baptiste brought that team back to touch out King Aquatic Club for silver – King was 1:30.03, just four hundredths behind. They jumped out to an early lead on backstroker Thomas Anderson‘s 22.17 split, the best in the field, and also had a top-level butterfly leg with Mathias Oh‘s 21.39.
Back in 6th place, the Bolles School’s “B” team broke the 15-16 National Age Group record set by Aquazot earlier this year. Bolles went 1:31.29, a little more than half a second under the NAG, with a team of Dakota Mahaffey, James Daugherty, Ariel Spektor and Tyler Rice.
A couple other notable splits:
- Ryan Hoffer, 16, Scottsdale: 20.55 butterfly
- Tate Jackson, 17, Nitro: 19.67 freestyle
- Cole Cogswell, 17, Canyons: 19.75 freestyle
Girls 4×200 Free Relay
- Meet: 7:16.71 – Patriot, 2013
- 13-14 NAG: 7:26.91 – Chattahoochee Gold, 2014
- 15-16 NAG: 7:15.17 – SwimMAC, 2014
- 17-18 NAG: 7:07.82 – SwimMAC, 2014
- 15-18 NAG: 7:07.82 – SwimMAC, 2014
Patriot Aquatic Club successfully defended their 2013 Winter Juniors title in the girls 800 free relay, going 7:16.85 to just miss their meet record by a tenth. The relay was bookended by quick 1:47 splits: Erin Falconer was 1:47.09 on the leadoff leg, and Reilly Lanigan closed in 1:47.78. Also on the winning relay were Erica King and Haley Nelson.
Second went to Y-Spartaquatics in 7:17.10. That was led by Ali Galyer‘s 1:47.25 anchor leg, along with a 1:48.17 from leadoff swimmer Katrina Konopka, pulling a double on the relays tonight.
Palo Alto took third overall, getting a 1:47.35 leadoff split from Jennifer Campbell to go 7:17.95. Just behind was Aquazot, which went 7:18.56, also getting a strong leadoff leg from Sonia Wang (1:48.56).
Boys 4×200 Free Relay
- Meet: 6:34.98 – Dynamo, 2013
- 13-14 NAG: 6:55.96 – Cincinnati Marlins, 2014
- 15-16 NAG: 6:38.14 – Tennessee Aquatics, 2014
- 17-18 NAG: 6:28.90 – SwimMAC, 2013
- 15-18 NAG: 6:28.90 – SwimMAC, 2013
It was Santa Clara Swim Club that took the final event of the night, going 6:33.02 to win the 800 free relay by about a half second. Key in that effort was leadoff man Aidan Burns, a high school senior and Georgia commit, who split 1:36.89 from a flat start. Burns was outstanding in his pacing, going 22.59 on the opening 50, followed by 24.8/24.9/24.5.
Joining him on the winning squad were Cooper Burrill (1:38.10), Michael Messner (1:38.20) and David Farr (1:39.83). All four swimmers are big-time college commits: Burrill will head to Yale, Messner to Minnesota and Farr to the University of Chicago next season.
They also broke the meet record set last year by Dynamo.
Second place was Nitro, which got a crushing 1:36.87 leadoff leg from Sean Grieshop to ultimately go 6:33.64. Anchor Tate Jackson, pulling a double as the Nitro anchor on both relays tonight, went 1:37.33.
Bolles took third place in 6:35.64, keyed by their middle two legs: Scott Bole was 1:37.62 while Andrea Vergani went 1:37.87.
Fourth went to Palo Alto, which got straight 1:39s from all four swimmers, Alex Liang, Benjamin Ho, Lucca Martins and Joe Molinari. Going nearly the same time was Tennessee Aquatics, which ended up fifth in 6:37.79 – Tennessee got a 1:37.74 anchor leg from Walker Higgins as well as a 1:38.61 from Hayden Burns, but didn’t have the consistency to beat out Palo Alto.
Also notable: Upper Dublin got a 1:35.74 split from its anchor, the fastest in the field. Results are currently not including swimmers names for that relay, however.
anyone know how tall abbey weitzeil is?
5’10” at the tallest. Looks taller than she is
Weitzeils 50 Fr split from SC Worlds last week (23.40) coverts to 20.99. So although 21.1 is fast, no one should be surprised after last week.
21.19, that’s faster than I ever went, I wasn’t a 50 sprinter really anyways but that’s beyond the point. i’m not even mad, i’m impressed.
Of course, she’s an elite swimmer. She swims faster than almost any person in the world.
21.19 relay plit for Abbey Weitzeil?
Not surprising. It means 21.70/21.80 flat start. No reason to get carried away.
She was in 24.23 last week at the SCM world championships and it also converts to around 21.70/21.80 in SCY.
That’s the kind of times we can expect from her today in the individual race.
It’s unlikely she breaks the 17/18 NAG record of 21.59 by Simone Manuel but she can become at least number 2 all-time (Janet Hu 21.82). Same goal in the 100 free (Simone Manuel 46.62/Missy Franklin 47.17).
Sounds like a “Debbie Downer”
Ok. I didn’t know what it meant so I made a little research and I found that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Debbie_Downer.PNG
😆
Me, a negative person? 😆
No, please. You can write what you want about me but not that, please.
I rather feel that sometimes some swimswam readers are a little tired of my overenthusiastic comments! 😆
I just wanted to say that Abbey swam like that in Doha so that’s not surprising and I just added what it meant flat start. Is it a crime?
Other thing. If you almost have a heart attack with a 21.19 relay split, then that’s unlikely you will still be alive after… Read more »
The pic that bobo linked should be his avatar for this site.
If only Weitzel had started her college this year, CAL would have had no problem winning NCAA.
And if Ledecky had started her college career this year, Stanford would have no problem to win NCAA championships. 😉
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Weitzel’s time is faster than any split at NCAAs last year, and is one of the top few 50 free splits of all time, not just 2014, right? Is it the second fastest split ever behind AVW? And I wouldn’t say Weitzel ran down a rival….she ran down a fellow future Golden Bear, who split a respectable 22 herself. But 21.1. Wow. Go Bears.
Also of note, the two fastest breaststroke splits for the boys were Kmak(24.81) and Babinet(24.80), on PASAs A and B relays, respectively. Only one other under 25: Bolles’ Vergani at 24.99.
Bolles B relays were really fast – a sure sign of great coaching.
UDAC was impressive in both boys… Read more »
Off the top of my head AVW, Romano, and I think Geer have all been sub-21. It’s too bad there isn’t a list for fastest relay splits
I’m pretty sure no one has split sub 21 before.
No… Multiple people have
Klorn8d is right.
Tons of others have gone just as fast or faster than Weitzeil.
Simone Manuel, Maddy Schaeffer, Janet Hu., Hinds, Smoliga, Martin, Jackson, Locus, Geer, Weir.
There’s more. It’s a long list…
Simone would easily eat Weitzeil up for breakfast. No contest!
Why is USA Swimming even allowing a SENIOR national teamer to compete at JUNIORS anyway?
Seems unfair to me. I don’t see Simone or Katie Ledecky entered…
Upon reflection, I realize that I have indeed witnessed some splits faster than that, including Liv going 21.12….witnessed-via-streaming that is.
Guess I’ve got “some burn holes in my memories,” to quote one Chancelor Bennett.
About Farr—U Chicago is D3, is it not?
You are correct, my mistake. Story has been updated!
Michael Jensen of UDAC split 1:35 on 800 free relay…