2019 Speedo Sectionals – Santa Clarita
- July 18-21, 2019
- Santa Clarita Aquatic Center, Santa Clarita, CA
- Meet information
- Psych sheet
- Results (Meet Mobile): ‘2019 CA Speedo Sectionals Santa Clarita’
BREA Aquatics’ Kenisha Liu, who will be a senior at UCLA in the fall, won her third event in two days at CA/NV Sectionals in Santa Clarita. After taking home golds in the 100 free and 200 breast on Thursday, she won the 200 free with a personal best of 2:00.53 on Friday. That time was good enough to qualify for 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials, a .69 improvement over her seed time of 2:01.22. Finishing in second place was University of Florida’s Taylor Ault. Swimming for La Mirada Armada, she stopped the clock in 2:01.95, just .14 off her entry time. Ault was victorious in the following event, the 400 IM, going 4:58.45 to win by half a second over 16-year-old Ana Jih-Schiff of Crow Canyon (4:59.04).
Michael Tenney, also of BREA Aquatics and a rising senior at Iowa, added gold medals in the 200 free (1:51.67) and 400 IM on Friday. He had won the 200 fly on Thursday. Tenney went 4:28.74 in the IM, dropping .14 from his entry time. Ben Hayes of California Aquatics, a rising sophomore at Brown University, lowered his PB by 1.3 seconds to finish second with 4:31.35. UC San Diego’s Jack Spitser (4:32.29) was third, thanks to a 4.35-second drop in finals that qualified him for 2019 U.S. Open. In the 200 free, second and third places went to UC Santa Barbara’s Joseph Lastelic (1:52.22) and 17-year-old Jude Williams of Riverside Aquatics (1:52.40). Both finished the day with PBs: Lastelic in prelims (1:52.09, -.40) and Williams in finals (-.67).
Other event winners:
- Stanford-bound Alexandra Crisera of Beach Cities Swimming won the 100 back in 1:03.18 ahead of Makayla Poloni of BREA who broke 1:04 for the first time with 1:03.86.
- Tyler James of UC San Diego dropped .68 to win the men’s 100 back in 57.67, coming within .57 of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials time standard.
- BREA Aquatics won the women’s 400 free relay in 3:52.29 with Emily Trieu (58.76), Zephy Koh (58.28), Marly Lough (58.31), and Liu (56.94).
- The men’s 400 free relay went to Roadrunner Aquatics (Ryan Brimer, 51.61; Michael Hart, 51.86; Richard Campbell, 52.71; and Noah Hickman, 52.01) in 3:28.19.
Maybe with a new coach this is going to be the year Liu pops off at PAC 12s and NCAAs. She always seems to have great long course swims
I sure hope so! I really thought she was on a roll before she started at UCLA. She did fantastic while swimming under Jim Johnson at BREA but had minimal gains at UCLA, and she always seems to drop time again while swimming with BREA over the summer. Coming out of high school, she was probably one of the most versatile swimmers in her class—making A finals in everything from the 50 free to the 400IM to the 200Breast and 200Fly at Juniors!
Always knew my grandson was going to go to the Olympics. This article is very well written. I’m so proud of you Mikey. Can’t wait to gather around the TV for Tokyo. Love you xx