2023 Winter Juniors – West: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2023 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – West

• December 6-9, 2023
• FMC Natatorium, Westmont, Illinois
• Prelims: 9:00 am (CST)/ Finals: 5:00 pm (CST)
• Wednesday finals (relays only): 6:00 pm (CST)
• SCY (25 yards)
• Meet Central (USA Swimming)
• How To Watch
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results or on Meet Mobile

Heat Sheets Wednesday Finals

We are kicking off the 2023 Speedo Winter Junior Nationals – West in Westmont, Illinois, at 6:00 PM Central Time. Between this meet, and the Winter Juniors – East meet in Columbus, Ohio, we’ve got the nation’s top junior swimmers on display for the next four days.

The meet follows the NCAA order of events, so Day 1 will consist of timed finals of the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays. We will begin with the two fastest heats of girls, then of boys, for each relay, followed by all the rest of the heats. You can heat sheet, included above, to find out when a particular team is scheduled to race.

Girls’ 200 Yard Medley Relay – Timed Finals

• West Record: 1:37.65 – Fort Collins Area Swim Team (B Stewart, Z Bartel, C Gillilan, K Alons) 2017
• Meet Record: 1:36.48 – Carmel Swim Club (Berglund, Sweeney, Shackell, Christman), 2022
• 13-14 NAG Record: 1:41.87 – TAC Titans (Clark, Cotter, Curzan, Morris), 2019
• 15-16 NAG Record: 1:39.21 – Virginia Gators (Muzzy, Kulp, Bray, Hamilton), 2017
• 17-18 NAG Record: 1:38.98 – Nashville Aquatic Club (Hurt, A. Walsh, Massey, G. Walsh), 2020

Podium:

1. Crow Canyon Sharks ‘A’ (O’Connell, Mellott, Hartman, Clark) – 1:37.86
2. Mission Viejo Nadadores ‘A’ (Salvino, O’Dell, Stinson, Aquino) – 1:38.64
3. Bellevue Club Swim Team ‘A’ (Sunwoo, Enge, Watson, Clarke) – 1:40.32
4. Academy Bullets Swim Club ‘A’ (Conklin, McGann, Rentz, Krasnicki) – 1:40.52
5. NASA Wildcat Aquatics ‘A’ (Lenahan, Koenig-Song, Bolton, O’Donnell) – 1:40.60
6. Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics ‘A’ (Zhang, Hong, E Detter, O Detter) – 1:41.16
7. Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Andrews, Yovanovich, Jablonski, Weiler) – 1:41.21
8. Crow Canyon Sharks ‘B’ (Mak, Gregory, Butler, Suppiger) – 1:41.28

In heat 1, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics just barely touched out Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club 1:41.16 to 1:41.21, to claim victory. Both teams came to the wall ahead of Aquajets Swim Team, who, in turn, edged Lakeside Aquatic Club’s B relay, 1:42.30 to 1:42.33.

Crow Canyon Sharks took the second heat in 1:37.86, narrowly missing the West meet record. Madison O’Connell led off with a 25.01 backstroke; she was followed by Raya Mellott on breast (27.06), Bailey Hartman on fly (23.44), and Liberty Clark on free (22.35). Mission Viejo Nadadores (Teia Salvino, Teagan O’Dell, Chloe Stinson, Gracyn Aquino) went 1:38.64 for 2nd place in the heat, while Bellevue Club Swim Team eked out 3rd place in 1:40.32, ahead of Academy Bullets (1:4052) and NASA Wildcats (1:40.60).

Boys’ 200 Yard Medley Relay – Timed Finals

• West Record: 1:27.11 – Scottsdale Aquatic Club (R Hoffer, S Gage, R Van Deusen, J Blake), 2016
• Meet Record: 1:26.52 – Mason Manta Rays (C. Foster, J. Foster, McDonald, Chaney), 2018
• 13-14 NAG Record: 1:34.61 – Carmel Swim Club (Lancaster, Malicki, Haig, Enoch), 2020
• 15-16 NAG Record: 1:28.85 – Mason Manta Rays (C. Foster, Van Gorp, McDonald, Chaney), 2018
• 17-18 NAG Record: 1:26.43 – Spartan Aquatic Club (N. Stoffle, Lin, Muhammed, Sacca), 2020

Podium:

1. Lakeside Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Williamson, Lucas, Osio, Paulk) – 1:27.41
2. Aquajets Swim Team ‘A’ (Logue, Hackler, Davis, Hogan) – 1:27.52
3. FMC Aquatic ‘A’ (Mieczkowski, Johnson, Hou, Mazurek) – 1:27.58
4. Rose Bowl Aquatics ‘A’ (Liu, Li, Kim, Boutakidis) – 1:28.04
5. Rose Bowl Aquatics ‘B’ (Noguchi, Kim, Makouar, Brown) – 1:29.17
6. Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Bricca, Medvinsky, Skarda, Audette) – 1:29.56
7. Parkway Swim Club ‘A’ (Crook, Koenig, Judkins, Jost) – 1:30.14
8. Evolution Racing Club ‘A’ (Jiang, Wu, Verdolaga, Mundl) – 1:30.22

Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club started us off with a 1:29.56 to dominate the first heat. Swim Neptune (1:30.43) edged FMC Aquatic’s B relay (1:30.53), Scottsdale Aquatic Club (1:30.58), and Iowa Flyers (1:30.67) for 2nd place in the heat.

Lakeside Aquatic Club won heat 2 by a tight margin ahead of Aquajets Swim Team and FMC Aquatic’s A squad. Lakeside’s Maximus Williamson (21.96), Cooper Lucas (24.44), Riccardo Osio (21.29), and River Paulk (19.72) combined for the winning 1:27.41. Aquajets’ Luke Logue (22.25), Jack Hackler (24.53), Micah Davis (21.14), and Conner Hogan (19.60) were just behind in 1:27.52. FMC’s Szymon Mieczkowski (22.60), (23.74 Brady Johnson), Jeffrey Hou (21.23), and Dominic Mazurek (20.01) went 1:27.58 for 3rd.

Girls’ 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• West Record: 6:52.66 – Sandpipers of Nevada (A Sims, K Grimes, M Hodges, C Weinstein), 2022
• Meet Record: 6:52.66 – Sandpipers of Nevada (A Sims, K Grimes, M Hodges, C Weinstein), 2022
• 13-14 NAG Record: 7:18.96 – NOVA Aquatics (G. Sheble, C. Sheble, Erickson, Ackerly), 2017
• 15-16 NAG Record: 7:08.94 – NCAP (Duncan, Spink, Wall, Gemmell), 2020
• 17-18 NAG Record: 7:06.69 – NCAP (Duncan, Wall, Spink, Gemmell), 2022

Podium:

1. Crow Canyon Sharks ‘A’ (Butler, Mellott, O’Connell, Hartman) – 7:09.01
2. Mission Viejo Nadadores ‘A’ (O’Dell, Salvino, Hughes, Mori) – 7:09.73
3. Bellevue Club Swim Team ‘A’ (McDevitt, Sunwoo, Kehoe, Enge) – 7:10.22
4. Scottsdale Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Armijo, Therrien, Sayers, Cosgrove) – 7:18.52
5. The Woodlands Swim Team ‘A’ (Riederer, Watson, Smoker, Luper) – 7:19.86
6. Irvine Novaquatics ‘A’ (Ton, Hamilton, Nguyen, Wharton) – 7:20.17
7. Lakeside Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Clift, Collins, Andruss, Colombo) – 7:21.04
8. Crow Canyon Sharks ‘B’ (Clark, Suppiger, Linares-Danzos, Mak) – 7:21.60

Mission Viejo got out to a fast start in heat 2, thanks to a 1:43.35 from Teagan O’Dell. That put the Nadadores up 2 body lengths going into the second leg, with Bellevue Club (Alexa McDevitt, 1:45.96) and Crow Canyon (Ellie Butler, 1:49.28) trailing. Teia Salvino (1:46.71) kept MVN in front, while Sophia Sunwoo (1:48.83) and Raya Mellott (1:48.88) swam the second legs for Bellevue Club and Crow Canyon, respectively.

On the third leg, the Sharks’ Madison O’Connell (1:48.06) cut into Mission Viejo’s lead, outsplitting Kaelia Hughes (1:50.13) by 2 seconds. Mission still led, with Bellevue Club about 4 seconds behind them and about 2 seconds ahead of Crow Canyon. Gracyn Kehoe (1:49.23) swam third for BCST.

The final leg was a thriller, with Crow Canyon’s Bailey Hartman (1:42.79) and Bellevue Club’s Piper Enge (1:46.20) chasing down the Nadadores. Victoria Mori clocked a 1:49.54 anchor for Mission, and while she was passed by Hartman, she was able to hold off Enge’s attack.

Boys’ 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• West Record: 6:22.78 – Lakeside Aquatic Club (M Williamson, C Lucas, M Hatcher, R Paulk), 2022
• Meet Record: 6:22.78 – Lakeside Aquatic Club (M Williamson, C Lucas, M Hatcher, R Paulk), 2022
• 13-14 NAG Record: 6:55.16 – SwimMAC (Osman, Turner, Clontz, Bartee), 2021
• 15-16 NAG Record: 6:30.45 – Rose Bowl Aquatics (Dalmacio, Kim, Larrick, Maurer), 2021
• 17-18 NAG Record: 6:23.21 – Carmel Swim Club (Davis, Rothrock, Hadley, Mitchell), 2019

Podium:

1. Lakeside Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Williamson, Lucas, Hatcher, Paulk) – 6:20.34
2. Rose Bowl Aquatics ‘A’ (Li, Noguchi, Liu, Kim) – 6:29.54
3. Irvine Novaquatics ‘A’ (Maksymowski, Chen, Hitchens, Santos) – 6:33.05
4. FMC Aquatic ‘A’ (Harris, Mieczkowski, Hou, Johnson) – 6:33.99
5. Lakeside Aquatic Club ‘B’ (Palmisani, Rice, Stanislaus, Witte) – 6:34.04
6. Sierra Marlins Swim Team ‘A’ (Chandler, Calkins, Franz, Jones) – 6:34.61
7. Aquajets Swim Team ‘A’ (Davis, Xue, Ploof, Webb) – 6:35.09
8. Scottsdale Aquatic Club ‘A’ (Rosen, Falls, Schuricht, Mindlin) – 6:36.44

Lakeside Aquatic Club’s Maximus Williamson, Cooper Lucas, Max Hatcher, and River Paulk took down their own meet record, set in 2022, by 2.34 seconds in heat 2 of the 800 free relays, combining for 6:20.34. They also broke a pair of National Age Group records in the process: the 17-18 NAG (6:23.21) that had been held by Carmel Swim Club since 2019, and the 15-18 NAG record that this same Lakeside quartet set last year at Winter Juniors West (6:22.78).

Williamson led off with a 17-18 National Age Group record of 1:32.00. He was followed by Lucas (1:33.57), Hatcher (1:36.91), and Paulk (1:37.86).

Rose Bowl Aquatics, who finished in 2nd place by over 9 seconds, went 6:29.54 with splits from Daniel Li (1:37.44), Logan Noguchi (1:36.26), Ray Liu (1:39.41), and Nathan Kim (1:36.43).

The race for 3rd place was more competitive, with Irvine Novaquatics (Andrew Maksymowski, Will Chen, Derek Hitchens, and Gian Santos) combining for 6:33.05 to touch out FMC Aquatic (Nate Harris, Szymon Mieczkowski, Jeffrey Hou, and Brady Johnson) and Lakeside’s ‘B’ relay (Matteo Palmisani, Keaton Rice, Maxwell Stanislaus, and Evan Witte).

Team Scores – Day 1 – Girls

1. Crow Canyon Sharks 124
2. Bellevue Club Swim Team 84
3. Mission Viejo Nadadores 68
4. Lakeside Aquatic Club 58
5. Irvine Novaquatics 38
6. Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club 34
7. The Woodlands Swim Team 32
8. (tie) Academy Bullets Swim Club / Scottsdale Aquatic Club 30
9. –
10. Nasa Wildcat Aquatics 28
11. Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics 26
12. Orinda Aquatics 24
13. Rose Bowl Aquatics 14
14. Aquajets Swim Team 10
15. Riverside Aquatics Association 8
16. Nitro Swimming 6
17. Gold Medal Swim Club 4
18. Elmbrook Swim Club 2

Team Scores – Day 1 – Boys

1. Lakeside Aquatic Club 112
2. Rose Bowl Aquatics 98
3. FMC Aquatic 76
4. Aquajets Swim Team 58
5. Scottsdale Aquatic Club 46
6. Irvine Novaquatics 44
7. (tie) Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club / Swim Neptune / Sierra Marlins Swim Team 26
8. –
9. –
10. Parkway Swim Club 24
11. Evolution Racing Club 22
12. Alto Swim Club 18
13. Dart Swimming 16
14. Lake Oswego Swim Club 14
15. Iowa Flyers Swim Club 10
16. (tie) Bend Swim Club / Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics 2