Nitro’s Sean Grieshop has broken the 15-16 National Age Group record in the 500 free with his winning performance at the Winter Junior Nationals.
Grieshop, the top seed out of prelims in the event, ran away from a field with multiple Division I signees in it, going 4:16.59 to take gold.
His time tops last year’s winner, Townley Haas, who at the time set both the meet record and the 15-16 National Age Group record.
A quick look at the running splits between the old record and the new:
| Grieshop 2014 | Yards | Haas 2013 |
| 23.59 | 50 | 23.25 |
| 49.15 | 100 | 48.57 |
| 1:15.09 | 150 | 1:14.38 |
| 1:41.02 | 200 | 1:40.66 |
| 2:06.91 | 250 | 2:06.88 |
| 2:33.00 | 300 | 2:33.06 |
| 2:59.08 | 350 | 2:59.15 |
| 3:25.17 | 400 | 3:25.36 |
| 3:51.37 | 450 | 3:51.68 |
| 4:16.59 | 500 | 4:17.45 |
You can see that Grieshop closed extremely well, going out about a half-second slower than Haas’s record over the first 200 yards, but from 200-300, Grieshop erased that entire deficit, slowly building up his lead to a few tenths before taking off over the final 50 yards.
Looking even further down the road, Grieshop, 16, is now just about 4 seconds off the hallowed 17-18 NAG record of 4:12.33 set by the legendary Michael Phelps back in 2004. Grieshop has just over two more years to go after that mark, if Haas doesn’t lower it first.
RACE VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqoBxPPJTmg
I can see him having a shot at Phelps’s 15-16 400 yd IM record as well….3:42.08
That would be an even more impressive record time.
Well deserved win and NAG record by one of the nicest young men you will ever meet. The Nitro Family is very proud of Sean and all of the kids competing in Seattle. Great meet recaps by Swim Swam also!
Sorry for the near duplicate post. It appeared the first one didn’t take, hence the 2nd one. My apologies!
Congrats to Sean! Hard to find a nicer young man anywhere. He has it all– but most of all he has humility. Well done, Sir! Well deserved win and well deserved record. The Nitro family is very proud. Coaches Tim and Robert have the kids swimming fast out there in Seattle. Great job to all! Mike.
Mid distance/distance freestyle or IM, I don’t know but star in the making, I’m sure.
With Haas ,Hoffer , Dressel , and a few others , we got a beautiful bunch of amazing future stars in the making .