2019 USA SWIMMING SPEEDO JUNIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, August 6 – Saturday, August 10, 2019
- Stanford Avery Aquatic Center, Palo Alto, CA
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 5 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
- LCM format
- Meet Central
- Psych sheet
- Live stream (all sessions)
- Start Lists & Live Results
Day 1 finals will include ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ heats of the women’s and men’s 200 butterfly and women’s and men’s 100 breaststroke. The fastest heat of the women’s 800 and men’s 1500 freestyles will also swim tonight in a timed final.
Day 1 Finals Events:
- Women’s 200 Butterfly – Finals
- Men’s 200 Butterfly – Finals
- Women’s 100 Breaststroke – Finals
- Men’s 100 Breaststroke – Finals
- Women’s 800 Freestyle – Finals
- Men’s 1500 Freestyle – Finals
Tonight’s session will move quickly and in a slightly different format than last week’s National Championship. For the 200 butterfly and the 100 breaststroke, each event will begin with the bonus final or ‘C’ final, which will be followed by the consolation final or ‘B’ final, and finally the ‘A’ final.
Day 1 Finals Storylines to Watch:
- The race to break 2:00 in the men’s 200 butterfly is on! Two swimmers in this morning’s prelims session flirted with the 2-minute barrier, but no one has yet eclipsed the mark today in Stanford. Though Mason Laur and Ben Miller are the 2:00s from this morning, Matthew Fenlon of Badger Swim Club could be the one to take the gold after his performance last week. Though Fenlon was only a 2:01.40 this morning, he was the second-fastest Junior swimmer in the 200 fly at last week’s National Championship behind National Champion Luca Urlando. Fenlon did not rank as high overall, however, due to swimming in the ‘C’ final, which he won last week.
- 15-year-old Justina Kozan, who is qualified for the World Junior Championships in the 200 IM, is tonight’s 3rd seed in the women’s 200 fly. Though Kozan was only 2:12.93 this morning, and 2:12.86 last week at Senior Nationals, Kozan went 2:10.50 at the LA Invite in July, exactly one second faster than tonight’s top seed, Grace Sheble, who was 2:11.89 in prelims last week and 2:11.63 in finals.
- Claire Tuggle will not swim the 200 fly, despite qualifying for the ‘C’ final, and will instead focus on the 800 freestyle. Tuggle is neither the top-seed nor the youngest in the field, distinctions she has typically held in the past when racing distance or mid-distance freestyle at the national level. Even so, her seed time of 8:42.37 is just over five seconds slower than her best time, so she could be poised for a time-drop tonight.
- The distribution of swimmers under 16-years-old and over 16-years-old in tonight’s ‘A’ finals makes for an interesting point of comparison, though it doesn’t necessarily reveal anything “new” insofar as elite teenage swimming is concerned: Four 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old will race in the ‘A’ final of the women’s 100 breaststroke tonight; two 14-year-olds and two 15-year-olds will race in the ‘A’ finals of the women’s 800 freestyle; and three 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old will swim the ‘A’ final of the women’s 200 fly.
- On the men’s side, only one 15-year-old, Stephen Jones of the Savannah Swim Team, will swim in an ‘A’ final, his being the 200 fly.
- In total years between all swimmers in each of the women’s ‘A’ finals swimming tonight, the women’s 100 breaststroke is 127-years-old, or 15.875 on average; the women’s 800 freestyle is also 127-years-old, or 15.875 on average; while the women’s 200 fly is 126-years-old, or 15.75 on average, making the ‘A’ final of the 200 fly the youngest of all ‘A’ finals on night one.