The first morning of the Speedo Grand Challenge from Irvine went off with plenty of fast in-season swimming. Dylan Carter put up a solid swim in the 200 free prelims along with good swims from the Cal swimmers Katie McLaughlin and Abbey Weitzeil.
The morning started with Riley Scott of USC topping the 200 IM prelims with a 2:17.64 to lead Keaton Blovad, Ayla Spitz and Zoe Thatcher. The A-Final will only feature four swimmers in each event. Blovad out-split Scott in every stroke expect breaststroke where there was a six second difference so the final will be interesting between those two.
Event 1 Women 200 LC Meter IM
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2:18.69 NATL
2:18.69 OT Trials
2:21.39 JNR
2:24.28 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Scott, Riley O 19 UN-PC/USC-CA 2:16.67 2:17.64 qNATL
30.42 1:07.74 (37.32)
1:44.38 (36.64) 2:17.64 (33.26)
2 Blovad, Keaton 28 CAL-PC 2:19.71 2:18.69 qNATL
29.90 1:03.67 (33.77)
1:46.31 (42.64) 2:18.69 (32.38)
3 Spitz, Ayla R 16 NOVA-CA 2:21.21 2:20.03 qJNR
30.45 1:06.64 (36.19)
1:48.59 (41.95) 2:20.03 (31.44)
4 Thatcher, Zoe M 20 AUB-SE 2:16.65 2:20.11 qJNR
30.48 1:06.29 (35.81)
1:48.25 (41.96) 2:20.11 (31.86)
Dylan Carter topped the 200 free heats with a 1:49.07 ahead of USC teammate Cristian Quintero (1:50.83). Justin Nguyen and Zach Apple will also swim in the A-final tonight.
Event 2 Men 200 LC Meter Freestyle
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1:51.89 NATL
1:51.89 OT Trials
1:54.69 JNR
1:56.08 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Carter, Dylan J 21 UN-04-CA/USC-CA 1:48.45 1:49.07 qNATL
25.52 52.99 (27.47)
1:21.04 (28.05) 1:49.07 (28.03)
2 Quintero, Crist 24 TROJ-CA 1:49.59 1:50.83 qNATL
26.04 53.67 (27.63)
1:22.21 (28.54) 1:50.83 (28.62)
3 Nguyen, Justin 17 NOVA-CA 1:53.46 1:51.66 qNATL
25.83 53.80 (27.97)
1:22.68 (28.88) 1:51.66 (28.98)
4 Apple, Zach 20 AUB-SE 1:50.01 1:52.61 qJNR
26.19 54.40 (28.21)
1:23.71 (29.31) 1:52.61 (28.90)
The women’s 100 breast final will be a tight one as the top four were separated by a little over a second from this morning’s prelims. Texas A&M’s Jorie Caneta leads the qualifiers with a 1:09.44 ahead of Cal’s Marina Garcia (1:09.64) and USC’s Riley Scott (1:10.59). 17-year-old Ali Harrison will also swim in the A-final.
Event 5 Women 100 LC Meter Breaststroke
==================================================================
1:11.49 OT Trials
1:11.59 NATL
1:13.49 JNR
1:17.08 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Jorie Caneta 20 UN-01-GU 1:09.98 1:09.44 qOT
32.94 1:09.44 (36.50)
2 Marina Garcia U 22 CAL-PC 1:08.63 1:09.64 qOT
33.15 1:09.64 (36.49)
3 Riley Scott 19 UN-PC/USC-CA 1:09.93 1:10.59 qOT
34.19 1:10.59 (36.40)
4 Ali Harrison 17 BUEN-CA 1:11.52 1:10.65 qOT
33.91 1:10.65 (36.74)
The men’s version will be equally exciting as Cal’s Connor Hoppe and New York Athletic Club’s Mike Alexandrov swam 1:03.31 and 1:03.51 respectively. Hoppe and Alexandrov will be joined by Cal’s Carson Sand and Matt Whittle. Alexandrov is the only non-Cal swimmer in the 100 breast top four and is the oldest swimmer by 11 years.
Event 6 Men 100 LC Meter Breaststroke
==================================================================
1:03.69 OT Trials
1:03.89 NATL
1:06.29 JNR
1:08.11 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Hoppe, Connor L 21 CAL-PC 1:00.89 1:03.31 qOT
29.70 1:03.31 (33.61)
2 Alexandrov, Mik 32 NYAC-MR 1:01.68 1:03.51 qOT
29.84 1:03.51 (33.67)
3 Sand, Carson J 19 CAL-PC 1:02.66 1:04.15 qJNR
30.07 1:04.15 (34.08)
4 Whittle, Matt D 21 CAL-PC 1:04.22 1:04.77 qJNR
30.77 1:04.77 (34.00)
The women’s 50 free will be another tight race with Abbey Weitzeil leading the way ahead of USC’s Kendyl Stewart, Cal’s Farida Osman, Canyon’s Amanda Kendall and Cal’s Amy Bilquist. Stewart and Osman were tied for second at 25.88 and Kendall and Bilquist tied for fourth at 25.90, the final spot pending a swim-off for the final.
Event 9 Women 50 LC Meter Freestyle
==================================================================
26.19 NATL
26.19 OT Trials
26.69 JNR
27.42 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Weitzeil, Abbey 20 CAL-PC 24.28 25.45 qNATL
2 Stewart, Kendyl 22 TROJ-CA 26.04 25.88 qNATL
2 Osman, Farida H 22 CAL-PC 24.91 25.88 qNATL
4 Kendall, Amanda 26 CANY-CA 25.47 25.90 qNATL
4 Bilquist, Amy M 19 CAL-PC 25.71 25.90 qNATL
Swim-Off Required ----------------------------------------------
The Men’s 200 IM had a small host of talent as only 13 swimmers entered the event. Ohio State’s Daniel Gloude leads the way at 2:07.04 ahead of Texas A&M’s Brock Bonetti (2:07.31) to lead the way for a young final with 15-year-old Kevin Vargas taking the fourth spot in the final.
Event 10 Men 200 LC Meter IM
==================================================================
2:05.09 OT Trials
2:05.29 NATL
2:08.69 JNR
2:10.40 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Gloude, Daniel 20 UN-17-OH/AZOT-CA 2:07.62 2:07.04 qJNR
27.08 1:00.01 (32.93)
1:37.23 (37.22) 2:07.04 (29.81)
2 Bonetti, Brock 21 UN-01-GU 2:05.29 2:07.31 qJNR
26.70 58.99 (32.29)
1:37.16 (38.17) 2:07.31 (30.15)
3 Sa-Nguansap, Hu 20 AZOT-CA 2:07.52 2:08.87 qMIN
27.34 1:01.18 (33.84)
1:38.40 (37.22) 2:08.87 (30.47)
4 Vargas, Kevin L 15 RMDA-CA 2:09.76 2:08.91 qMIN
28.11 1:03.06 (34.95)
1:38.68 (35.62) 2:08.91 (30.23)
The final four person final for tonight was the women’s 400 free where Cal’s Katie McLaughlin topped the prelims with a 4:16.36. Sandpiper’s Erica Sullivan is second with a pair of Auburn swimmers Ashley Neidigh and Zoe Thatcher rounding out the final.
Event 13 Women 400 LC Meter Freestyle
==================================================================
4:17.99 NATL
4:17.99 OT Trials
4:22.19 JNR
4:29.70 MIN
Name Age Team Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 McLaughlin, Kat 19 CAL-PC 4:18.31 4:16.36 qNATL
30.38 1:03.46 (33.08)
1:36.25 (32.79) 2:08.89 (32.64)
2:41.29 (32.40) 3:13.51 (32.22)
3:45.26 (31.75) 4:16.36 (31.10)
2 Sullivan, Erica 16 SAND-CA 4:10.87 4:17.81 qNATL
29.90 1:02.15 (32.25)
1:34.50 (32.35) 2:07.13 (32.63)
2:39.85 (32.72) 3:12.68 (32.83)
3:45.60 (32.92) 4:17.81 (32.21)
3 Neidigh, Ashley 22 AUB-SE 4:13.86 4:18.25 qJNR
30.02 1:02.05 (32.03)
1:34.40 (32.35) 2:06.97 (32.57)
2:39.70 (32.73) 3:12.57 (32.87)
3:45.50 (32.93) 4:18.25 (32.75)
4 Thatcher, Zoe M 20 AUB-SE 4:20.27 4:20.61 qJNR
30.56 1:03.03 (32.47)
1:35.79 (32.76) 2:08.88 (33.09)
2:41.81 (32.93) 3:14.90 (33.09)
3:47.82 (32.92) 4:20.61 (32.79)
