2015 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – West
- University of Texas’s Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center -Austin, TX
- Wednesday, December 9 – Saturday, December 11
- (Bonus long course meter time trials on Sunday, December 12)
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (Th-Sat), Wed. Timed Finals 6PM (U.S. Central Time)
- Meet Page
- Psych Sheets
- Live results
There was excitement everywhere you turned on Thursday night at Speedo Winter Juniors West: meet records, national age group records, and … Katie Drabot of Ozaukee Aquatics: the girl with the golden touch. Drabot won all three individual events, as improbably as that may seem. And it wasn’t even all that close.
Girls’ 500 Yard Freestyle – Final
Drabot won the first of her three events with a 4:40.49 in the girls’ 500 free. Erica Sullivan of Sandpiper turned first at the 100, leading the field through the first 250 yards. Drabot trailed but was within a half-body length. Evie Pfeifer had moved to second by the halfway point, with Drabot in third.
Drabot pulled to the lead at the 300 mark, with Sullivan and Pfeifer behind. La Mirada’s Taylor Ault found another gear at the 400 and moved all the way up to second place. At the bell, Drabot turned first, with Ault challenging her. Drabot finished with 4:40.49. Ault was second in 4:41.73. Pfeifer went 4:42.87 for third.
Boys’ 500 Yard Freestyle – Final
Sean Grieshop was already out front at the 100, followed by Johnthomas Larson of Edina and Liam Gately of Loveland. By the 200 Grieshop was over a body length up on the field; he increased his lead to over two body lengths at the 300. Taylor Abbott of Nitro moved up into second right around then, with teammate Chris Yeager right behind.
Grieshop won with 4:15.53, lowering the West meet record he had set in prelims. Abbott was second in 4:20.45, while Larson picked up third with 4:22.21. Yeager was disqualified for false start; otherwise there would have been a Nitro sweep of the podium.
Sandpipers’ Isabella Goldsmith was out first at the 50, with Drabot and Kenisha Liu of Brea following. Drabot made her move in the backstroke leg, pulling ahead of Goldsmith. She extended her lead in the breaststroke, already a body length ahead by the breast-to-free turn. Drabot touched in 1:56.05, breaking the West meet record of 1:57.90 she had set in prelims.
Liu moved into second place with a final time of 1:58.22, and Abby Richter of Boulder City Henderson came thundering in with a 1:58.35 for third.
Boys’ 200 Yard IM – Final
Indie Swimming’s Michael Andrew simply crushed the field, lowering his own meet and national age group records with a final swim of 1:42.77. He came into the meet with 1:45.73, dropped almost 2 in prelims, and then another 1.2 in finals for a total of 2.98 seconds. Up by a half-body length at the 50, he extended his lead to a full body length after the backstroke. Bryce Mefford of Sierra Marlins and Jack Xie of PEAK were tied for second heading into the breaststroke. Andrew really pulled ahead of the field at the 150, having split a 29.7 on the breast. Grieshop of Nitro had moved into third by now, just behind Xie.
Andrew touched with a new meet record and national age group record for 15-16 year-olds: 1:42.77. Grieshop got his hand to the wall just ahead of Xie for second, out-touching him 1:46.64 to 1:46.70.
Girls’ 50 Yard Freestyle – Final
Just when it seemed like Ozaukee’s Drabot had done enough damage, there she was in lane four waiting to start the championship final of the girls’ 50 free, looking as fresh as she did behind the block of the 500 free. Having set the West meet record in prelims with the top qualifying time of 22.53, she was poised for her third consecutive victory of the night.
Everyone turned together at the 25, but Drabot’s underwater was just a bit stronger, and her acceleration flags-to-the-wall was unparalled. Drabot clocked a 22.49 to get the win and the new West record. Second place went to Greater Nebraska’s Olivia Calegan in 22.81. Grace Zhao of Palo Alto Stanford was third in 22.83.
Boys’ 50 Yard Freestyle – Final
Ryan Hoffer of Scottsdale Aquatic Club absolutely crushed the boys’ 50 free final. He put up a lifetime-best 19.06 in the final, bettering his previous PB by .32, to move up to number 2 on the all-time list for 17-18 boys. Hoffer, incidentally, is still 17. Although he has another .39 to go before he matches Caeleb Dressel’s national age group record, he still has a year to get it done.
Second in the race was Albert Gwo of Palo Alto Stanford in 19.94. Mark McGlaughlin of Iowa Flyers was third in 20.01.
Girls’ 400 Yard Medley Relay
After racing 750 yards in the finals session alone, Ozaukee’s Drabot still had a 48.7 100 free left in her, but it wasn’t enough to get the win. She, Autumn Haebig, Ally Silvestri, and Sylar Fore claimed the bronze medal with a combined 3:40.93.
The gold medal went to Chloe Isleta (54.50), Grace Zhao (59.99), Gabrielle Anderson (54.48), and Isabelle Henig (49.10) of Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics in a West meet record of 3:38.07. Crow Canyon’s Gianna Garcia, Zoie Hartman, Maddie Murphy, and Izzy Barattolo placed second in 3:40.80.
Boys’ 400 Yard Medley Relay
The PASA boys led the field as well, with Benjamin Ho (48.88), Jeremy Babinet (53.53), Joe Molinari (47.44), and Gwo (43.52) winning the 400 medley relay in 3:13.37. Scottsdale Aquatic Club, with Josh Vedder, Jack Blake, Sebastian Gutierrez, and Hoffer, who split a 42.4 free on the end, came in second with 3:16.78. Hoffer overcame a 2-second deficit to pull SAC into second, leaving King Aquatic Club (Thomas Anderson, Mitch Hovis, Dale Williams, and Kevin Dang) with the bronze medal.
Andrew’s first 50 in his best 100 fly time is 21.63.
My Predictions:
100 Fly: 21.39/24.05 = 45.44
100 Breast: 24.69/27.77 = 52.46
100 Back: This is difficult because he is either awesome or not awesome at backstroke at certain meets. At the Ontario meet in SCM he Went 51.97, which is great, but in Minneapolis he went 55.5 long course, so it’s hard for me to make a prediction here but I’m going with:
22.10/24.34 = 46.44
I think Andrew will keep going at this meet. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of him, but I think he knows what he needs to do for trials, he’s been making some leaps this year. That being said, I love SCY because it’s so unpredictable as small improvement in some things that are minor in long course can make for huge time drops, so hear are some predictions for andrew:
100 fly: 45.71(21.49, 24.22)
100 breast: 52.52(24.44, 28.08)
100 back: 46.50(22.34, 24.16)
19.06 is smoking woild have been 5th at NCAA’s last year
Also in extremely impressive fashion, Katie Drabot takes home all three individual titles tonight in domiating form.
4:40.49 in the 500 free
1:56.05 in the 200 IM
22.49 in the 50 free
That’s some really good range, and the finals session only lasted about 1 hour and 10 minutes by the time she dove in for the 50 free final. Has anyone ever swept all the individual events in a day like she did?? Hosszu comes to mind but other than that I can’t think of anyone with the talent to do it.
Hoffer went 19.06 in the 50!!!!!! Never thought I’d say it so soon… but Dressel’s 18.94 is definitely going to be broken in the very near future. Wow.
Dressel was still 18 at NCAA’s when he went 18.67. The 17-18 NAG is 18.67. However, hoffer could possibly touch is High School record of 18.94 before he graduates, because that’s not for a year and a half.
You’re right, I forgot that he was still 18 when he won NCAA’s! Thanks for correcting that.
I believe Dressel did his 18.94 at Juniors — so that’s not a “high school record” even though he certainly did it during high school.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Michael Andrew with a 1:42?!?!?! Holy crap!! Every time I think he’s starting to plateau, the kid surprises me. Absolute monster of a swimmer. I see a 1:57 in LC next summer for him.
He’s putting himself in a good position for Trials. If any of the big stars have a bad swim.. he could fill the gap with a big swim.
I genuinely did not think that anyone could even scare David Nolan’s 17-18 NAG of 1:41.3. But now, Andrew has proven that its not as out-of-reach as it has seemed for the past 4 years. If Andrew continues racing in yards occasionally over the next two years, he could tackle that monster. That, is truly insane.
David Nolan’s 4-NAG weekend might be all gone in a few years. If anyone had said that it would be gone that quickly, people would have laughed. But such is the crazy-fast state of SCY swimming that we’re looking at. Insane.
Grieshop in 4:15.53 for the 500, about a second drop for him.
Michael Andrew came into the meet with a 1:45.75 and got down to a 1:42.77 for another 15/16 NAG! Crazy three second drop for him, with Grieshop coming in second in that same race in 1:46.64. Good double for him.
Can Andrew go 45 in the 100 fly? He took out his 200 IM in 21.65, it looks like he has a good chance if his speed is on his side tomorrow.
Hoffer coming up soon in the 50.