Twichell Dominates Women’s 10K, Anderson Takes 2nd At OW Nationals

2017 U.S. OPEN WATER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• May 19-21, 2017
• May 19 – OW Nationals 10 KM
• May 20 – Junior Nationals 5 KM
• May 21 – OW Nationals 5 KM
• Castaic Lake, CA
• Meet Info (OW Nationals)
• Meet Info (JR Nationals)
• Start Lists

Much like Jordan Wilimovsky dominated the men’s 10K, Ashley Twichell put on a clinic in the women’s event coasting to a 53-second victory.

She began to open up her lead on the third of six laps, keeping her foot on the gas the rest of the way for the win in a time of 2:04:17.84. Twichell defends her title from 2016, though in a much more dominant fashion after defeating Italy’s Rachele Bruni by just over two tenths last year.

Twichell has a pair of open water World Championship medals from 2011 in the 5K (bronze) and the team 5K (gold), and was also the 2013 World University Games champion in the 10K. She won silver at the 2016 Short Course World Championships in the 800 freestyle behind American teammate Leah Smith.

Twichell commented on the race, mentioning she wasn’t expecting to pull away and was surprised when she realized the gap she had.

“It felt really good – definitely not what I was expecting. It wasn’t my strategy going into it, and kind of like with open water, it doesn’t go as planned. An Italian girl took off, and I followed her and looked behind me and was kind of surprised to see that we had a 10-15 meter lead and I just went with it.” Quote courtesy of USA Swimming.

Haley Anderson, who was the U.S. representative in Rio last year, finished 2nd to join Twichell on the World Championship team. Anderson was in a tight battle with the Italian Bruni, but was over 2.5 seconds clear of the next closest American, Becca Mann.

Anderson finished in 2:05:10.85, with Bruni 3rd (2:05:11.25), fellow Italian Arianna Bridi 4th (2:05:12.41) and Mann 5th (2:05:13.42). Mann was the winner of this race in 2015, while Bruni won bronze last summer in Rio. Anderson, despite only finishing 4th in this event last year, was 5th in Rio.

After Mann, there was a 1:34 gap to sixth place where Cathryn Salladin of FAST came in. Kareena Lee of Australia took 7th, and the top British woman was Danielle Huskisson in 10th. That will qualify her for the World Championships, as Britain is using this as a World Championship qualifier.

Check out full results, via USA Swimming Live on twitter, below:

Your top 8 women for the 10K and official results! #OWNats pic.twitter.com/sdOe42D5cA

— USA Swimming Live (@USASwimLive) May 19, 2017