2014 LA Invite
- Thursday, July 17th-Sunday, July 20th
- Thursday 4PM, Friday-Sunday Prelims 8:30AM/Finals 5PM (Pacific Time)
- Uytengsyu Aquatics Facility, University of Southern California
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
Day Four
Women’s 100 Fly Final
It was a great start to the final session of the Los Angeles Invitational, with Kendyl Stewart of North Coast Aquatics and Felicia Lee of Stanford going head-to-head in the 100 fly. Stewart went out in a 27-mid, a half-second faster than Lee, but Lee nearly caught her on the second 50. They finished 1-2 in 58.60 and 58.80, respectively.
Australian Marieke D’Cruz touched out her teammate Yolane Kukla 59.78 to 59.80 for third place.
Cal’s Kelly Naze (1:00.06) and Caitlin Leverenz (1:00.37) both improved on their prelims times and ended up in fifth and sixth. Bruins’ Noelle Tarazona touched out Celina Li of Pleasanton by .02 for seventh with 1:00.68.
Men’s 100 fly podium L to R: Nathanial Romeo, Giles Smith, Maclin Davis, Alex Valente
Men’s 100 Fly Final
In the men’s race it was all Giles Smith. The Phoenix Swim Club All-American turned first at the wall and then really brought it home. His 52.79 put him nearly a body length in front of second-place Nathaniel Romeo of Australia.
Maclin Davis and Buenaventura’s Alex Valente tied for third with 54.09. They were only slightly in front of Brian Stevens of Tucson Ford (54.14) and Australia’s Kurt Herzog (54.29) and Alexander Graham (54.53). Utah’s Alex Fernandes took eighth with 55.29.
Women’s 1500 Free
Erin Emery of Sandpipers had won the morning session of 1500s with 16:46.96, so that was the time to beat headed into the heat swimming in finals.
La Mirada’s Taylor Ault knocked nearly 30 seconds off her seed time and took the evening heat with 16:48.62. Finishing second in the final heat, and thus third overall, was Megan Rankin of Golden West. Her time was 16:55.77.
The rest of the top eight all came from the evening heat: Kelsey Cummings, Irvine NovAquatics’ Brittany Kampfer, Kendall Brown of AquaZot, Buenaventura’s Brigid McNally, and Swim Pasadena’s Caroline Lepesant.
Women’s 100 back podium L to R: Missy Franklin, Elizabeth Pelton, Mikkayla Sheridan. Photo: Anne Lepesant
Women’s 100 Back Final
Elizabeth Pelton and Missy Franklin were in lanes 3 and 5, respectively, having qualified just behind Australia’s Holly Barratt in prelims.
The Cal teammates both went out about a 6/10 faster than in the morning, and both brought it home a second faster. They were together at the 50 turn, at which point Pelton began to inch ahead of Franklin. But in the last 25 meters it looked like Franklin might catch her… and then… it looked like they touched at the same time. A look at the scoreboard showed Pelton with 1:00.57, Franklin 1:00.70.
Mikkayla Sheridan of Australia was third in 1:02.20. Shani Burleigh of Australia went 1:02.33 for fourth; then came Taylor Schick of Tucson Ford (1:02.61), Madison White of Crow Canyon (1:02.62), Australia’s Holly Barratt (1:03.18), and Bonnie Brandon from Tucson Ford (1:03.54).
Men’s 100 Back Final
It was just a couple of hundredths. Top qualifier Ashley Delaney of Australia was in lane 4, meet record holder Matt Grevers in lane 5. They were only a couple hundredths apart at the turn. Delaney started to inch ahead of Grevers. They came in under the flags; Grevers was catching him. They finished together in a wave. And then the announcer pronounced Grevers the winner in a new meet time of 54.00. Delaney’s 54.03 was also under the previous record, set by Grevers in 2011.
As Grevers said in an interview at the conclusion of his race, being 6’8″ has helped him many times in his life.
Scotland’s Charlie Boldison was third in 55.34. Bryce Bohman of Tucson Ford went 56.36 for fourth. Trojans’ Luca Spinazzola (56.90), Austin Ringquist of Ford (57.86), CLASS Aquatics’ Chase Bloch (58.00), and Jack Descombes of Stanford (58.47) rounded out the “A” final.
Jack McLoughlin during the 800. Photo: Anne Lepesant
Men’s 800 Free
The time to beat in finals was the 8:13.81 that Logan Houck of Sandpipers went in the morning heats.
Top-seeded Jack McLoughlin of Australia, who had finished second in the 1500 on Saturday, established the pace early on. Ryan Kao of La Mirada went with him and tried to stay on his hip for as long as he could.
McLoughlin got in front by about two seconds at the 200. From there they each split 1:01-highs until about the 600 when McLoughlin began to descend. He finished with a 8:04.89 to Kao’s 8:10.41.
Houck ended up with the third-fastest time. The rest of the top eight included: Christopher Webb of Ford, Scott Simmer of TSM, Ty Fowler of Ford, Alex Peterson of AquaZot, and Ted Singley of Trojans.
Jessica Hansen. Photo: Anne Lepesant
Women’s 100 Breast Final
Jessica Hansen came in with the top qualifying time; Jessica Hardy was next to her in lane 5. Hardy was out first, but just barely: she turned in 32.21 to Hansen’s 32.28. Hansen dug in and controlled the second half of the race, eventually winning in 1:07.88 to Hardy’s 1:08.03.
Stanford’s Katie Olsen just touched out her teammate Sarah Haase, 1:09.83 to 1:09.86.
Australia’s Samantha Marshall (1:10.94), Hayley Monteith of Scotland (1:11.19), Heidi Poppe of Stanford (1:11.30), and Nikol Popov of Canyons (1:12.01) completed the “A” final.
Men’s 100 Breast Final
Australia’s Jake Packard led wire-to-wire out of lane 4, and ended up winning with a new meet record of 1:00.65. He broke a 1:00.82 mark set by Kosuke Kitajima in 2010.
Kevin Cordes of Tucson Ford took second with 1:01.45, just edging out Nicholas Schafer of Australia who finished with 1:01.47. Anton McKee, who had broken the meet record when he won the 200 breast, took fourth with 1:01.63.
Buster Sykes of Australia (1:02.01), Andrew Poznikoff from Simon Fraser (1:02.21), Azad Al-barazi of Trojans (1:02.29) and Kitajima (1:02.38) made up the rest of the final.
Women’s 200 free podium L to R: Kylie Palmer, Missy Franklin, Chelsea Chenault. Photo: Anne Lepesant
Women’s 200 Free Final
Missy Franklin went out a second faster than in the morning, in 57.85. She was two seconds ahead of her earlier pace by the 150 and way out front. Then Kylie Palmer started to make a move on Franklin. Although the Australian outsplit Franklin over the last 50 it wasn’t enough and Franklin won 1:58.38 to 1:58.90.
Terrapins’ Chelsea Chenault had a great second half as well; she ended up third with 1:59.76.
Men’s 200 IM Final
Justin James of Australia broke Hidemasa Sano’s 2009 meet record of 2:00.59 with his 2:00.49 win. He led from start to finish, building the distance between himself and the rest of the field with each 50.
Mark Szaranek of Scotland picked up second place with 2:05.10.
Fullerton’s Hayden Duplechain, who had dropped 5 in prelims, went another 8/10 faster in finals and took third with 2:06.78.
Alex Valente swims for Buenaventura Swim Club in Ventura, CA for Coach Jason York.
And if you still want to compare the American and French levels in the youth ranks, here are the results of the first 2 days of competition at the French 14/15 age group championships (July 19-July 23)
Here in France, we are desperately waiting for new young talents for the after Rio. Hopefully a few youngsters shine this week. At the French level of course. You must understand that our talents are rare and most of them develop later than in other swiming nations. Except amazing natural talents like Agnel or Manaudou brother and sister, historically the French swimmers peak later in their careers. We don’t push the training in the junior ranks. And we used to specialize very… Read more »
Adèle Brunet
There are accents in French. 🙂
Elsewhere in USA….
Greensboro sectionals
Great 200 back performance by 17-year-old Hannah Moore in 2.10.18. Big PB for her.
She’s now the 7th 17/18 US performer in history.
Florida LC age group championships
14-year-old Robert Finke won the 1500 free in 15.56.82.
He’s now the 10th 13/14 US performer in history.
Jesse Vassallo is still the NAG record holder in the crazy fast time of 15.31.03 back in 1976! 😯
MP is still ranked second in 15.39.08 back in 2000. 🙂
Kendyl Stewart has tremendous speed. She has a crazy fast first part of 100 fly.
Hopefully she will improve her back-half in the next 2 years to swim 56 high/57 low at the olympic trials.
Swim the 200 fly in the training meets to improve that.
Why have Shields and Murphy only swum the prelims on that last day?
Both were pretty fast in prelims.
Shields in 52.68 in the 100 fly and Murphy in 54.05 in the 100 back.
Oh no Missy! What happens with your backstroke?
I don’t cry yet but that 100 back performance is not going to reassure me.
Where has your usual backstroke big finish gone since you’re at Cal?
Hopefully everything is planned and you will set the record straight in a few weeks.
But I’m concerned as much after this week as I was before this meet.
MIssy, you play with the nerves of you fans!
Bobo, what did you think of Missy’s 200 freestyle? Can she beat Katie?
Good swims by Stewart, Lee and Giles in the 100 fly! Stewart’s confidence must be high since she’s been 58.6 or better twice recently.
Pelton’s 100 back time is actually the fastest by an American this season, and Franklin’s was slightly faster than she’s been so far; but, it is only the 3rd fastest US woman’s time (Baker has also been faster), so it makes you wonder. Grevers hasn’t been that fast since Austin, so I’m happy for him.
I sure hope Codes has a good taper!
I’m glad to see Missy was able to hold off Palmer at the finish of the 200 free given that Palmer must have started her taper and Missy must still be working hard.… Read more »
danjohnrob, Kylie Palmer is not having a great year this year. This meet was the only LC meet she was selected for. Along with a few other swimmers, Palmer had the chance to qualify for the Pan Pacs team (she would have needed to swim a 1:56 200m Free or a 4:06 400m free). I hope she turns her attention now to qualify for the world short course championships.