Abbey Weitzeil Splits Sizzling 53.99 at Santa Clarita Sectionals Night Two

Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott

With the heat beating down on California during the second evening of the Santa Clarita Sectionals meet, several young swimmers were able to pop and take home wins.

After a great 100 free yesterday, Canyons’ Abbey Weitzeil had no individual events but stood out on the second place Canyons Aquatics’ 400 freestyle relay, anchoring in a solid 53.99 two weeks out of Kazan. There were also fantastic individual races from several young swimmers in tonight’s finals session.

The session opened with 16 year old Kenisha Liu from Brea Aquatics slicing over four seconds from this morning to dominate the women’s 200 freestyle in 2:02.67. Terrapins 16 year old Emily House fought back hard over the final 50 but fell short of catching Liu’s lead with a 2:04.22. Riley Spitser of BFST placed third in 2:05.76.

South Korea’s 14 year old star Hojoon Lee, representing Rapid City Racers, nearly even splitted his race to win the men’s 200 freestyle. Lee’s time of 1:51.90 is almost a second and a half faster than any American 14 year old boy in history, and is even 0.53 slower than his entry time of 1:51.47. Terrapins and Columbia University rising sophomore Michal Zyla finished second in 1:52.74 after leading a tightly packed field at the halfway point. Bobby Guerra of FAST dropped nearly two seconds from his seed to place third in 1:52.95.

Kenisha Liu was back a few minutes later to nearly win the grueling 400 IM, but Karli Thuen held off her late charge to win, 4:56.68 to 4:57.25. Those two were the only two finalists under 5 minutes. Shannon Herman of SDSU finished the women’s 400 IM in third (5:01.81).

PASA’s Garrett Chin had clear water to win the men’s event by over six seconds. His time of 4:30.38 was well off his 4:26.64 in prelims. Roadrunner’s Mario Vasquez placed second (4:36.68) and Isaiah Williams (4:39.78) of Swim Neptune rounded off the podium.

The women’s 100 back finals showed no change in the top three from prelims or the psych sheet. Stanzi Moseley of Roadrunner swam a strong 1:04.04 to win. Samantha Coloma from Terrapins placed second in 1:05.39 with Class Aquatics’ Elena England also under 1:06 finishing third (1:05.91).

Roadrunner had a stellar night, with Brock Bonetti, a rising Texas A&M sophomore, owning the men’s 100 back in 55.59 after posting a great 54.68 this morning. Class Aquatics’ David Puczkowski finished second (57.24) with De Anza Cupertino’s Casey Fleming in third (57.64).

The San Diego State women (Chelsea Bailey 58.22, Samantha Guttmacher 57.88, Whitney Weisz 57.44, and Savannah Miller 56.79) had enough of a lead in the 400 free relay to hold off a great 53.99 anchor from Abbey Weitzeil and her Canyons’ Aquatic Club teammates. SDSU’s winning time was 3:50.33 ahead of Canyons’ 3:51.02. Roadrunner Aquatics held their consistency and held on for the bronze ahead of a young Terrapins squad, 3:54.55 to 3:55.94.

The final event of the night, Clovis Swim Club’s men’s quartet (Matthew Elkington 53.67, Wesley Coles 52.56, Graham Hauss 51.51, Carl Weigley 50.25) displayed a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the men’s 400 freestyle relay thanks in part to Weigley outsplitting De Anza Cupertino’s Kevin Su 50.26 to 52.03 on the final leg. Clovis’s final time was 3:29.00, just ahead of DACA’s 3:29.17. The battle for third was fought by two relay teams both representing the host team. Canyons Aquatic Club’s A team edged their B team, 3:32.03 to 3:32.07.

Top 3 team standings after night two:

Men

Clovis Swim Club, 269 points
Canyons Aquatic Club, 265 points
Roadrunner Aquatic, 231 points

Women

Brea Aquatics, 326 points
Terrapins Swim Team, 303 points
San Diego State, 250.5 points

Day three of four will feature the both men’s and women’s 200 backstroke, 400 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, and 800 freestyle relay. Full results can be found below:

2015 Santa Clarita Speedo Sectionals, Day Two – Results

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