2015 U.S. JUNIOR NATIONALS
- Thursday, July 30th – Monday, August 3rd
- Northside Aquatics Center – San Antonio, Texas
- Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (local time)
- Full coverage
- Psych sheets
- Live stream link
- Live results
We’ve hit the halfway point of the 2015 Speedo Junior National meet, with 5 gold medals up for grabs on Saturday night.
The 100 butterflys should both be intriguing races, with Michael Andrew after the 15-16 National Age Group record and Ella Eastin after her third win of the meet.
Sean Grieshop leads a talented 400 free field for the boys, and his Nitro teammate Karling Hemstreet will kick off the night as the top seed in the girls race.
The night will conclude with the boys 4×200 free relay.
Keep refreshing this page for event-by-event updates from San Antonio, and check out@SwimSwamLive on Twitter for up-to-the-second highlights.
Girls 400 Free – Finals
Top Three Finishers:
- Taylor Ruck – 4:13.84
- Erica Laning – 4:15.77
- Sarah Shimomura – 4:15.82
Taylor Ruck blew away the field in the championship final, roaring out to a big lead and cruising home in 4:13.84. That’s still a few tenths off of Ruck’s lifetime-best, but won the race by nearly two seconds.
Ruck represents Canada internationally, but trains and competes with Scottsdale Aquatic Club in Arizona.
Tennessee Aquatics’ Erica Laning led in the remainder of the pack, going 4:15.77 to beat Santa Clara’s Sarah Shimomura (4:14.82).
Amanda Nunan pulled off fourth place in 4:16.09, rounding out the main pack at the front.
Gator Swim Club’s Kahra Williams wound up fifth in 4:17.28, with Magnolia’s Joy Field, the 800 free champ earlier in the meet, going 4:17.75 for sixth.
Top prelims qualifier Karling Hemstreet of Nitro was just off her prelims time in 4:17.89 – a testament to how much faster this final was all-around compared to the morning heats.
Palo Alto’s Jennifer Campbell rounded out the A heat in 4:17.95, and Anya Egorova dominated the consol heat in 4:16.88, earning an Olympic Trial cut and taking 9th overall.
Boys 400 Free – Finals
Top Three Finishers:
- Sean Grieshop – 3:52.60
- Chris Yeager – 3:54.14
- Parks Jones – 3:56.13
16-year-old Sean Grieshop led wire-to-wire in the boys race, never really feeling a serious challenge other than the one from his teammate Chris Yeager. One lane over, Yeager sat at Grieshop’s hip most of the way, riding his teammate’s wake to a great swim and second place.
Grieshop was 3:52.60, a drop of nearly a second, and Yeager went 3:54.14 to complete the 1-2 Nitro sweep. Parks Jones out of Arizona took bronze, going 3:56.13.
Yesterday’s breakout 1500 free winner Aaron Apel had another great swim here, bettering his prelims time to go 3:56.78 for fourth.
Baylor’s Trey Freeman was 3:56.92 for fifth as things started to spread out a bit behind him. NBAC’s Cole Buese was 3:57.34 and the last swimmer under four was Brendan Meyer in 3:59.45.
Machine’s James Murphy closed out the heat in 8th at 4:00.37.
Tennessee Aquatics’ Walker Higgins blew away the consol heat, putting up a 3:54.02 that would have earned him 2nd in the championship heat.
Girls 100 Fly – Finals
Top Three Finishers:
- Caroline McTaggart – 59.47
- Bailey Nero – 59.62
- Ella Eastin – 59.80
Ella Eastin was looking for her third win of the week, but it turned out to be Caroline McTaggart who was a repeat winner in the 100 fly, going 59.47 to win a very tight battle in the championship final. The All-Star Aquatic 18-year-old will swim at UCLA next year, and has now won the 100 free and 100 fly at Juniors this year.
Fort Collins’ Bailey Nero snuck in for second, pipping Eastin 59.62 to 59.80 as the entire top three broke a minute in the event.
Longhorn Aquatics’ Victoria Edwards was just on the other side of a minute, going 1:00.04, and Quest Swimming’s Maddy Banic, a Tennessee commit, went 1:00.21 for fifth.
Future Arizona Wildcat Mackenzie Rumrill took home sixth in 1:00.23, and Tevyn Waddell (1:00.34) and Remedy Rule (1:00.70) rounded out the A final.
The B final was equally tight, with SwimAtlanta’s Haley McInerny going 1:00.39 to take 9th overall.
Boys 100 Fly – Finals
Top Three Finishers:
- Michael Andrew – 52.57 *NAG Record*
- Maxime Rooney – 53.40
- Michael Thomas/Mathias Oh – 53.84
It took until day 3 before the first National Age Group record of 2015 Junior Nationals fell, and it was to the usual suspect – Michael Andrew. The Indie Swimming pro set just his second NAG record in the 15-16 age group, going 52.57 to crush the 100 fly field.
Andrew broke the old record of 52.75 held by current Cal Golden Bear Justin Lynch, a record he’s been sniffing around for a few weeks now. He’s now just over half a second off the Junior World Record of 51.91 set by Li Zhuhao at last summer’s Asian Games.
Pleasanton’s Maxime Rooney took second, going 53.40, an improvement of a half-second from prelims. Behind him was a tie for third place: Upper Dublin’s Michael Thomas and KING’s Mathias Oh both went 53.84 to share bronze.
Last summer’s Jr. Pan Pacs gold medalist Alex Valente was just 54.11 for fifth, well off his lifetime-best of 52.60. It appears Valente might be more focused on next week’s senior nationals instead.
Bolles School Shark Ariel Spektor was 54.58, the last guy under 55. Cameron Craig and Mark Jurek dueled for seventh, with Craig triumphing 55.06 to 55.07.
Will MacMillan won the B final, going 54.73 to earn a new Olympic Trials cut.
Boys 4×200 Free Relay – Finals
Top Three Finishers:
- North Baltimore – 7:31.58
- Palo Alto – 7:33.26
- Sarasota Y – 7:33.84
North Baltimore jumped to a lead and held off a number of different challengers over the 800-meter race, ultimately burning home to a win in 7:31.58. That was thanks in large part to a 1:51.79 leadoff leg from Cole Buese. NBAC followed that up with a pair of 1:52s (Coleman Stewart‘s 1:52.83 and Billy Cadigan‘s 1:52.87) and Daniel Golczewski anchored in 1:54.09.
Palo Alto Stanford was locked in a tight battle with Upper Dublin over the final leg, but a DQ knocked Upper Dublin out of contention. That left Palo Alto in second at 7:33.26 – Joe Molinari pulled off a 1:51.82 anchor leg while racing Upper Dublin and Benjamin Ho was 1:52.98 on the leadoff.
Sarasota YMCA came out of a lower-seeded heat to take third overall in 7:33.84. Once again, the leadoff leg made a huge difference, as Austin Katz went 1:52.69, and Emanuele Rossi was 1:52.86 on his leg.
Across the pool from each other, SwimAtlanta and the Dayton Raiders tied for fourth, both going 7:36.64. SwimAtlanta had a great back-end, with Jordan Ross splitting 1:52.78 on the third split. The Raiders got their best split from anchor Tommy Cope, who was 1:52.62.
Girls’ 400 free. Easy and expected win for Ruck. Nothing great from her so far. Perhaps she wants to peak at world juniors. She’s not American so she doesn’t need to peak in early August to qualify next week.
Boys’ 400 free. Easy and expected win for Grieshop. Can’t wait to see his 400 IM at nationals. I wonder if he will become more an IMer or a distance swimmer in the future. Or both like Erik Vendt for example. Nice 3.56 by 15-year-old Freeman.
Girls’ 100 fly. McTaggart is on fire. Second win of the week and again a big new PB. Breakout meet for her.
Boys’ 100 fly. Easy and expected win for Andrew. There was just a… Read more »
Dear August, once again, that US junior national meet, UNFORTUNATELY, doesn’t qualify the swimmers for world juniors.
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH SIMPLER TO TAKE THE TOP 2 IN EACH EVENT AT THIS MEET LIKE AT OLYMPIC TRIALS.
No, they prefer another selection mode.
THE QUALIFYING MEET IS NEXT WEEK AT US NATIONALS!
That’s why I wonder why Andrew, Grieshop, Rooney and some other big names swim this week at US juniors.
Hopefully they will still have some gas next week and more important in Singapore in 3 weeks.
52.57 is an astonishing time in the fly for a 16 year, but what is shocking is that this is only the third fastest time swum by a 16 year old this year (Pahkamov 52.13, Zhihou 51.82)! next 10 years of fly swimming is set to be fascinating.
Yes, it looks good.
But impossible to compete with the 2000s with MP, Crocker and Cavic.
they can swim other events in singapore that not swam in the trials?
This is the trials for the world junior?? If someone s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV1LzXf1TKQ
The podium celebration for Michael Andrew was quite something…. Didn’t take the Andrew family for some cowboys.
Hopefully you noticed that all of the event winners are given a cowboy hat!
Jared Anderson, you seem to have mixed up the order of finishes in the 400 freestyle, leaving Trey Freeman completely out of the A final he swam.
Good swim for Michael Andrew. Finish was a little long, I think he could have gone 52.4 with a better one. We’ll see how he does at senior nats. If anything happened during his trip to South Africa, it’s that his underwaters went from abysmal to actually pretty remarkable.
Yep, part of the paragraph got lost in the shuffle. Should be fixed now.
Cole Buese swims for NBAC, not Baylor.