5-Way Swimoff Set for Girls’ 50 Free on Friday Afternoon in Irvine

2022 SPEEDO JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• August 1 to 5, 2022
• William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center, Irvine, California
• Long Course Meters (50m)
• Meet Central
• Event Page
• Psych Sheets
• Live Stream (USA Swimming)
• Live Results (OMEGA) (also can be found on MeetMobile)

The most intense race of the week at the 2022 Speedo Junior National Championships might not even be a final.

In Friday morning’s prelims of the girls’ 50 free, a whopping five swimmers tied for 24th place. That will result in a five-way swimoff to see who gets a chance to swim in the C-Final. With only three final heats, this is a winner-takes-all for an evening swim on Friday event.

Jada Scott, Trinity Hoang, Katie Lawrence, Emma Kern, and Julia Wozniak all posted matching 26.39s in prelims of the 50 free.

Scoping the field:

Three of the swimmers are from Texas, each from a different major metro (Scott from San Antonio, Hoang from Austin, and Wozniak from DFW).

Of the group of five, only one swimmer posted a personal best in prelims: Julia Wozniak. Wozniak is also the oldest of the crew, and will attend Arizona in the fall.

We’ve seen a lot of whacky swim-offs lately. At last week’s Illinois Age Group Championships, two swimmers tied in a swimoff, requiring a double swimoff; then the same thing happened at US Nationals as well.

As for Friday, all five swimmers are listed on the startlist for the swim-off with a time stamp of 3:43 PM (local time), during the early heats of the distance races. The announcer at the meet, however, said the race would come 30 minutes after the conclusion of the boys’ 50 free, before the time trials session begins.

While there might still be scratches, it’s unlikely that there will be enough scratches to pull all five into the final heats on Friday, so the swim-off would still need to happen. Scratches would just impact how many of the five swimmers make the final.