The Speedo Sectionals meet in Santa Clarita fell victim to unfortunate storms on Saturday, leading\u00a0Saturday’s timed finals to be postponed due to the increment weather.<\/p>\n
Luckily for everyone involved local weather on the meet’s final day\u00a0turned out to be much less turbulent and meet organizers were able to schedule all of Saturday’s previously cancelled events, as well as Sunday’s events, into timed finals to avoid further event imbalances.<\/p>\n
To recap, the 200 backstroke, 400 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, and 800 freestyle relay were scheduled to be swum on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s originially planned events were the 200 individudal medley, women’s 800 freestyle, 50 freestyle, men’s 1500 freestyle, and the 400 medley relay.<\/p>\n
The women’s 200 backstroke was the only event in either day in which some swimmers were able to swim prelims and finals before storms interrupted the meet. The rest of the\u00a0events were only swum once, as timed finals.<\/p>\n
Saturday Individual Events Timed Finals<\/strong><\/p>\n Mckenna Garfein<\/strong> representing San Diego State claimed the top time in the women’s 200 backstroke with a 2:20.99. Julia Toronczak<\/strong> (unattached, 2:21.85) improved from\u00a0thirteenth seed to finish second, with Team Rebel Aquatics’s Jessica Wong<\/strong> (2:22.67) just behind her for third.<\/p>\n After cracking America’s top 10 this season in the 100 meter backstroke during Friday’s prelims (54.68), Brock Bonetti<\/strong> from Roadrunner Aquatics won the 200 backstroke by nearly four seconds in an Olympic Trial qualifying time of 2:02.38. San Clemente’s Joshua Swart<\/strong> secured second with a 2:06.30 followed closely by PASA’s Garret Chin<\/strong>\u00a0(2:06.58).<\/p>\n La Mirada’s Taylor Ault<\/strong> defended her top seed in the women’s 400 freestyle with a 4:22.05. Michaela Merlihan<\/strong> of Team Bruin was the only swimmer close to her with a 4:23.90. Ault’s teammate Kathleen Sulkevich<\/strong>(4:28.30) led the rest of the field for third place.<\/p>\n In the men’s race, it looked like young\u00a0Hojoon Lee<\/strong>\u00a0of Rapids and Michal Zyla<\/strong> of Terrapins would have a rematch from the 200 freestyle, where Lee got the upper hand. Those two were the only swimmers seeded below 4:00, both at 3:57’s. However,\u00a0Zyla did not compete on the meet’s last day. Relatively unapposed, Lee ended up taking the 400 freestyle in 3:58.15 by exactly three seconds. Daniel O’Connor<\/strong> from Mission Viejo finished second (4:01.15) with Fallbrook’s Robert Guerra\u00a0<\/strong>(4:03.31) in third.<\/p>\n The top three finishers in the women’s 100 breaststroke were all faster than the Olympic Trials standard. Clovis’s\u00a0Danielle Hermann <\/strong>(1:10.54)\u00a0edged Canyons’s Nikol Popov<\/strong>\u00a0(1:10.58) for the win.\u00a0Halle Morris\u00a0<\/strong>(1:11.24) of Marin Pirates\u00a0joined them in the top three.<\/p>\n Peter Kropp<\/strong> from the host team Canyons won a rematch with Boris Kulizhnikov<\/strong> (unattached) in the men’s 100 breaststroke, after Kulizhnikov out-raced him in the 200 breaststroke earlier in the week. Kropp’s 1:02.31 was more than a second ahead of Kulizhnikov’s 1:03.34. Third place belonged to Nick Korth<\/strong> swimming unattached with a 1:03.76.<\/p>\n Brea’s\u00a0Kenisha Liu<\/strong> continued her busy schedule with a win in the women’s 100 butterfly. Her 1:01.24 edged Royal Swim Team’s\u00a0Amy Okada<\/strong> (1:01.43) with Covina’s Catherine Sanchez\u00a0<\/strong>(1:01.82)\u00a0also swimming\u00a0under the US Open standard for third place.<\/p>\n Tule Nation’s Kyle Grissom<\/strong>, who will join USC’s roster in the fall, secured the win in the men’s 100 butterfly with a new personal best and US Open standard of 55.07. Kevin Mendoza<\/strong> from UC Santa Barbara was just behind him for second (55.31) with Joshua Swart (55.54) rounding out top three.<\/p>\n