2014 YMCA Nationals – Women’s 400 IM – Reported by SwimSwam
14-year-old Courtney Harnish continues to improve, dropping 3.3 seconds from her already-lifetime-best prelims swim to win the 400 IM. The York YMCA product went 4:11.93, thanks to some big front-half swimming. She split 55.5 on butterfly and 1:01.9 on backstroke on the way there. What’s scary is that Harnish can be much, much better in this event with some improvement to her 1:18.4 breaststroke leg.
Top seed Savanna Faulconer of Middle Tyger was a close second in 4:12.39. She fell behind Harnish early but clawed her way back into the race on breaststroke, splitting 1:09.5 there. She couldn’t match Harnish’s closing speed, but still went a lifetime-best by two seconds, and she’s only 15.
Sophie Cattermole went 4:17.57 to take third, just beating Waynesboro’s Remedy Rule (4:18.42, fourth).
Also notable was Marah Pugh, who dropped four seconds from her prelims time to win the B final at 4:19.47, the fifth-fastest overall.
Not easy to find but the race video is here.
http://coverage.takeitlive.tv/Swimming/USA-Swimming/2014-YMCA-SC-NATIONAL-CHAMPION/PRELIMS-AND-FINALS-HIGH-SHOT/Day-2-Prelims/i-D8sNnmd
Imagine putting lane 5’s Fly, Back and Free splits with lane 4’s breast split…that would blow the national record out of the water.
She’s still very young.
While I think she will focus on the freestyle events in the future, she has many years ahead of her to improve her breaststroke.
She has a huge motor and an impressive endurance.
Her butterfly was great and her backstroke looked long and smooth.
I suffered with her on the breaststroke leg but she came back to win thanks to her famous closing speed on freestyle.
“Any expections for the rest of the meet?”
I’m answering the question for her. 🙂
Becoming the second 13/14 performer of all-time in the 500 free behind Katie Ledecky and her 4.35.
And swimming under 16 minutes for the first time in the 1650 free.
4:11 with a 1:18 split is crazy… SMASH (everything but the breaststroke 🙂
Seriously, though. How fast could she be in this race? Yowza.