2014 LA Invite Day 1: Wilimovsky Wows in 1500 Prelims; Aussie and Canadian Relays Break All Records

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 One

The distance swimmers are on hand to contest the prelims of the Olympic distance events: women’s 800 and men’s 1500 meter free. They are following international rules, whereby the top eight women out of tonight’s prelims will swim again in finals tomorrow night, and the top eight men will swim again on Saturday. (The non-Olympic distance events, i.e., women’s 1500 and men’s 800, will swim as timed-finals on Sunday.)

200 Free Relay

Day One is also sprint relay day, and to kick things off, the Australia women broke the meet record with 1:41.76 out of lane 8 in the second of four heats with Melissa Mitchell (25.67), Carla Buchanan (25.79), Holly Barratt (25.22), and Yolane Kukla (24.93).

In the men’s 200 free relay, the team from Simon Fraser University won with a new meet record, and a Canadian Open record, of 1:30.65. The quartet was composed of Andrew Poznikoff (23.17), David Hibberd (25.26), Steven Hibberd (19.69), Ben Berg (22.53).

Meanwhile, in heat two, the Irvine Novaquatics boys 13-14 200 free relay broke the national age group record with 1:41.00:

Owen Kao 25.46
Justin Nguyen 24.67
Andrew Koustik 25.81
Hunter Hitchens 25.06

Women’s 800 Free Prelims

The Australians Kylie Palmer and Katie Goldman led the entire way of heat 1 of the women’s 800 with Sandpipers’ Erin Emery about 5 seconds behind. They finished 1-2-3 in 8:38.18, 8:40.87, and 8:46.09, respectively.

In heat 2 it was Haley Anderson of Trojan Swim Club with 8:47.06, about a second ahead of Swim Pasadena’s Katy Campbell (8:48.31). Australia’s Leah Neale was alone out front in heat 3, leading wire-to-wire and winning the heat in 8:40.60. La Mirada’s Taylor Ault and Tristin Baxter of Clovis touched almost simultaneously, in 8:46.46 and 8:46.54, respectively.

Those are the eight fastest times of women’s 800; the qualifiers for tomorrow’s final will be, in order: Palmer – Neale – Goldman – Emery – Ault – Baxter – Anderson – Campbell.

Men’s 1500 Free Prelims

National teamer Jordan Wilimovsky of Team Santa Monica, who will be representing the US in open water at Pan Pacs, had a huge swim, posting the top time of the meet in the third heat of the men’s mile. He was out quickly and by the 500 had built nearly a full 50 meter lead over his opponents. He continued to increase his lead with each 100 and finished with a blazing 59.2. Wilimovsky dropped 16.3 seconds off his seed time of 15:23.01 (which dated from 2012 Summer Juniors in Indianapolis, which he’d won with the meet record) and touched in 15:15.50. That is the fifth-fastest time in the country so far this year.

Australia’s Jack McLoughlin and Logan Houck of Sandpipers led the field in the first heat; they touched in 15:42.00 and 15:43.78 and qualified second and third, respectively, for finals on Saturday.

UC Berkeley-bound Ryan Kao of La Mirada was the winner of heat two with 15:53.98, the fourth time posted overall. One lane over was Billy Silva, whose 16:00.12 qualified fifth.

Jerad Kaskawal of Fullerton clocked a 16:03.72 out of heat one, and his teammate Simon Lamar finished second to Wilimovsky with 16:04.44. The pair qualified sixth and seventh, respectively.

Ty Fowler of Tucson Ford got the eighth spot for Saturday’s final with his third-place 16:04.88 in heat one.

The Sandpipers’ Carter Grimes and Nick McDowell dropped about a combined 56 seconds and finished ninth and tenth with 16:04.93 and 16:09.71, respectively. While they didn’t make finals they did have excellent swims, and Grimes punched his ticket to Juniors in the event.

200 Medley Relay

In the women’s race, both Australia’s A and B relays finished under the meet record. The B relay (1:54.17) consisted of Mikkayla Sheridan (29.33), Jessica Hansen (31.68), Buchanan (28.13), and Mitchell (25.03).

The Australian women’s A team went 1:51.64 to claim the meet record with Barratt, Samantha Marshall, Marieke D’Cruz, and Kukla.

The Australian men won their race with a meet record, as well. Alexander Graham (27.37), Jake Packard (26.55), Nathanial Romeo (23.95), and Justin James (22.72) combined for a 1:40.59.