The U.S. Junior National Championships continue this morning with day 2 prelims. The session will feature the 200 back, 100 free, and 400 I.M. for the men and women.
13-year-old Alex Walsh (2:12.49) sits at 2nd seed to earn a chance to challenge for the win in finals of the women’s 200 back.
Future Pac-12 rivals Mary Pelton (55.81), Katrina Konopka (55.97), and top seed Caroline McTaggart (55.62) in the women’s 100 free.
In the men’s version of that event, Michael Andrew (50.67) will make his first appearance as the 3rd seed in a stacked field of men’s sprinters. He’ll have to power past Colin Bone (50.43) and Maxime Rooney (50.44) if he wants to win, but his personal best 50.46 from last weekend is right on target.
Ella Eastin and Mark Jurek both won the 200 fly on Thursday night. They’re also each in position to take another gold. Eastin comes in with a large advantage over the field, entered at 4:43.13.
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
WOMEN’S 200 BACK
Nashville Aquatic Club’s Alex Walsh swam to a near personal best this morning, qualifying for her first championship final after narrowly missing the top 8 of the 100 breast yesterday. Her 2:12.67 was good for 2nd seed behind Emma Seiberlich, who qualified 1st in 2:12.43 with a new best time.
Grace Ariola came into the meet as the fastest in the field, and she’ll have a chance to win the event tonight after qualifying 3rd in 2:14.83.
4th through 8th place all landed in the 2:15 range. Ali Galyer (2:15.06) dropped almost 2 seconds to take 4th. Remedy Rule (2:15.11) swam out of the early heats, entered with a short course time, to take 5th just ahead of Kyra Sarazen (2:15.32)
Another 13-year-old will join Walsh in this final. Regan Smith (2:15.66) swam her way to 7th place this morning. Close behind, Karling Hemstreet rounded out the top 8 in 2:15.81.
MEN’S 200 BACK
Dropping 8 tenths off his previous best, Sarasota’s Austin Katz grabbed the top spot in the 200 back at 2:01.62. Behind him, Josh Artmann (2:02.08) and Sam Stewart (2:02.37) held on to their seeds to earn lanes 5 and 3 tonight.David Crossland raced to 4th at 2:02.46 with nearly a second drop from his seed time.
The 5th spot going into finals tonight went to Sean Grieshop at 2:02.55, well under his previous best of 2:03.79. Grieshop was a multi-event champion at winter juniors, and will compete in his first final of the meet in this event.
Rounding out the final, Taylor Delk (2:02.95), Jason Ewart (2:03.04), and Jordan Ross (2:03.13) each swam personal bests to secure a place in the championship final.
WOMEN’S 100 FREE
Coming into prelims, there were only 3 women swimming at the meet with times under 56 seconds. After this morning, 2 more junior women broke that barrier.
The field is led by incoming Arizona freshman Katrina Konopka. She dropped 7 tenths to clutch the top seed in 55.29.
2nd through 4th were separated by .04, setting up a tight race for the top 3 spots tonight. Melissa Pish (55.91) took the 2nd spot just ahead of Caroline McTaggert (55.93), who will start at UCLA in the fall. Brooke Hansen (55.95), who will join the Texas Longhorns this upcoming season, dropped a second to earn 4th.
Kenisha Liu (56.19) and Lauren Heller (56.39) filled the 5th and 6th place spots. Heller was just a hundredth ahead of 14-year-old Isabel Ivey from Gator Swim Club, who made a huge drop this morning. She cut her time from a 57.99 to a 56.40. Krista Duffield (56.48) closed out the top 8.
Incoming UCLA Bruin Mary Pelton, who was seeded 2nd coming into the meet, will get a chance to drop her time out of lane 4 in the B-final. She touched at 56.51
MEN’S 100 FREE
In his first swim of the meet, pro swimmer Michael Andrew tore through the water to a new personal best time at 50.23. That was faster than any other swimmer’s best time entered in the meet.
That was until Maxime Rooney hit the water. Rooney roared back in the 2nd circle seeded heat to take lane 4 in the final away from Andrew. Crushing to 50 second barrier, he hit the wall in 49.67. Those two men will battle tonight in the middle of the pool.
The next 5 men to qualify for the final were also under 51. Michael Jensen took 3rd in 50.50, followed very closely by Daniel Krueger at 50.53.
‘aukai Lilekis (50.65) broke 51 for the first time to take 5th ahead of Cameron Craig (50.75). Tate Jackson (50.93) and Tyler Harper (51.03) closed out the top 8 behind them.
Colin Bone had the top seed coming into the morning. He’ll get a 2nd swim tonight after finishing 13th in 51.21.
WOMEN’S 400 I.M.
After winning the 200 butterfly last night, Ella Eastin finished the morning as the only woman under 4:50 in the 400 I.M. She cruised in on the last 100, touching at 4:49.58 to lead the field. Half a second behind, Kelly Fertel (4:50.10) and Nora McCullagh (4:50.19) rounded out the top 3.
Shortly after making the championship final in the 100 free, Isabel Ivey dove in the pool to drop over 5 seconds from her best time in the 400 I.M. Her 4:50.53 earns her 4th going into tonight. She was just ahead of Christin Rockway (4:50.62).
Regan Barney (4:51.13), Kay Sargent (4:51.65), and Dannie Dilsaver (4:53.37) grabbed the last 3 spots in the top 8.
MEN’S 400 I.M.
After a big morning swim, Mark Andrew topped the prelims of the men’s 400 I.M. He posted a 4:23.59 to lead the top 8 by 1.5 seconds.
Cody Bekemeyer (4:25.18) set a new personal best to come within a tenth of 2nd seed Antonio Ramirez (4:25.11).
PASA landed a swimmer in the championship final. Sean Lee (4:26.19) dropped 3 seconds to place 4th, ahead of Spencer Lehman (4:26.57). Joe Molinari clocked in at 4:26.88 for 6th.
Noah Cairns (4:27.24) and Stephen Holmquist (4:27.77) will swim in the end lanes in finals as the 7th and 8th seeds.
Mark Jurek just missed the final. He came into the session with the fastest time, but will swim in the B-final tonight. He was 9th with a 4:28.11.
This competition is the trials for the world junior?
Just wanted to point out… Sean Lee and Joe Molinari come from two different PASA teams lol. Sean Lee come from Swim Pasadena in SoCal and Joe Molinari comes from Palo Alto Stanford in Pacific Swimming
whoops… got it. thanks
Agree with Bobo: Rooney is the real deal for Usa Swimming in 100 and 200 free in the next years.
Futures Update:
In West Lafayette zone, 14 year old Liam Bell went 1:03.84 in 100 breast prelims. About a half second off Reece Whitley’s 1:03.23 NAG
US men’s breaststroke really wakes up in the junior ranks for 2 or 3 years now. It will pay off in 2020.
Girls’ 200 back. Can the very talented youngster Alex Walsh win her first US junior title? That would be great. It will be a close race.
Boys’ 200 back. No big backstroke stars. But interesting to see Grieshop’s improvement in that stroke before his 400 IM next week.
Girls’ 100 free. Konopka looks well ahead.
Boys’ 100 free. I said I was irritated to see Mr Rooney continue to swim fly and waste his energy in that stroke because I repeat for 3 or 4 years that he’s the future 100 free/200 free US star. McEvoy-like profile in my opinion. Boom! 49.67 in prelims. His PB was 50.44 from last summer. Hopefully he doesn’t peak one month too soon. The… Read more »
Rooney is to be followed closely . A super talent to come strong on the sprint area .
Has anyone ever broken a minute in 100 breast and 50 in 100 free?
Considering how short the list of sub-minute breaststrokers is, the odds are pretty slim, and I can’t think of one. MA could possibly do it at age 16. Good chance it happens at age 17.
Looking at the list of sub 1:00 breaststrokers I don’t think it has happened. Of the guys who have been sub 1:00, I bet Nic Fink could do it as he was a very good relay sprinter at UGA, possibly Kitajima since he was a good IMer, but MA is probably going to be the first one
I saw Sean swam the 200 back, but his bests events is not 400 im and 1500?
He’s also swimming at Nationals. Probably doing those there
Isabel Ivey from Gator Swim Club made Trials in the 100 free, waited 20 minutes to swim the 400 IM, and then made Trials in the 400 IM. Impressive morning.