2016 U.S. WINTER JUNIOR CHAMPS – WEST
- Wednesday, December 7th – Saturday, December 10th
- College Station, TX (Texas A&M University)
- Psych sheets
- Meet information
- Live Results
Fort Collins Area Swim Team’s 16-year-old Zoe Bartel took down U.S. Olympian Caitlin Leverenz‘s 15-16 National Age Group Record in the 200 breast en route to gold at the 2016 U.S. Winter Junior Championships (West). Bartel’s winning time of 2:07.73 cleared the old mark of 2:08.11 set by Leverenz in 2007. It also shattered the previous Meet Record, which stood at a 2:09.23 done by Grace Zhao in 2015. Zhao placed 2nd in tonight’s final, also swimming under the old Meet Record with a 2:09.21.
When looking at the splits, we can see that the big difference in the NAG Records came with Bartel’s front-end speed. Her first 50 split of 29.43 was almost a half second faster than Leverenz’s 29.89.
Splits Comparison:
| Swimmer | 1st 50 split | 2nd 50 split | 3rd 50 split | 4th 50 split | Final Time |
| Zoe Bartel (2016) | 29.43 | 32.47 | 32.73 | 33.10 | 2:07.73 |
| Caitlin Leverenz (2007) | 29.89 | 32.64 | 32.78 | 32.80 | 2:08.11 |
| Grace Zhao (2015) | 29.51 | 32.43 | 33.4 | 33.89 | 2:09.23 |
When she was racing Zhao in the final, however, her back half was her biggest asset in the race for gold. The 2 swimmers were separated by just a couple tenths at the 100, but Bartel brought it home in 1:05.83 to Zhao’s 1:07.04.
Congrats.
She’s the breaststroker USA needs in the 200 for the next few years.
She roasted it… great to see, especially considering there were no Americans in the final at Rio. Let’s hope the progression continues. She was out very fast and suffered a bit in the last 50 there, but honestly if you can go 32.4/32.7 in the middle it doesn’t matter too much. I’m not a huge fan of people who drop a minute from their 3rd 50 to the last one anyway.
Congrats, Zoe! Awesome swim!