2018 SPEEDO JUNIOR NATIONALS
- Tuesday, July 31 – Saturday, August 4, 2018
- William Woollett Aquatics Center, Irvine, CA
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
- Meet website
- Meet information
- Event Order
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream Schedule
- Omega Results
- Results also on Meet Mobile
- Heat Sheet
The 2018 Speedo Junior Nationals conclude tonight with the 50 free, 200 IM, women’s 1500 free, and men’s 800 free. Brothers Jake Foster and Carson Foster will face off in the 200 IM after their 1-2 finish last summer. Andrei Minakov will go for his 3rd title of the meet in the 50 free. Claire Tuggle takes on the 200 IM tonight.
WOMEN’S 200 IM:
- GOLD: Claire Tuggle– 2:15.02
- SILVER: Grace Sheble– 2:15.80
- BRONZE: Isabel Gormley– 2:17.19
Claire Tuggle is now the 2nd fastest American ever in the 13-14 age group after winning tonight’s 200 IM title. Tuggle dropped almost a second off her time in 2:15.02. Only Missy Franklin has been faster with her 2:12.73. Tuggle also stands as the American #2 behind Franklin in the 11-12 rankings. 15-year-old Grace Sheble dropped another second off her time in 2:15.80, leading Tuggle halfway but falling behind on the back half.
Isabel Gormley had the fastest front half of the top 3, holding off Anna Havens Rice (2:17.71) on the breast leg and powering home to take bronze in 2:17.19. Claire Donan (2:17.92) was just a half second shy of her best to take 5th.
MEN’S 200 IM:
- GOLD: Carson Foster– 2:01.14
- SILVER: Jake Foster– 2:02.55
- BRONZE: Andrew Winton– 2:03.50
Carson Foster‘s win was never in question as he took off from the start, winning by over a second in 2:01.14. He was a little over a second and a half shy of his best from last week’s Nationals. There, Foster swam a 1:59.45 to break the 15-16 NAG Record. He was already leading by over a second through the back leg as he took it out in 56.26.
Older brother Jake Foster was 2nd, using his back half speed to beat Andrew Winton (2:03.50) for the silver. Foster was just a few tenths slower than last week when he put up his lifetime best 2:02.24 at Nationals. Zach Hils was the 2nd fastest man in the field through the front half, but faded to 4th in 2:05.86, about a second slower than his prelims time.
WOMEN’S 1500 FREE:
- GOLD: Kensey McMahon– 16:32.94
- SILVER: Paige McKenna– 16:39.96
- BRONZE: Abigail McCulloh- 16:43.30
Kensey McMahon capped off a strong showing at this meet with a victory in the mile. She was a second shy of her best time from last week, but still finished well ahead of the field. She’s dropped 15 seconds in this race throughout 2018. Paige McKenna swam a best by over 4 seconds, also breaking 16:40 for the silver ahead of Abigail McCulloh, who broke 17:00 for the first time with a huge, 17-second drop.
WOMEN’S 50 FREE:
- GOLD: Christiana Regenauer- 25.73
- SILVER: Alexandra Crisera– 25.77
- BRONZE: Emma Wheal– 25.84
Christiana Regenauer took almost half a second off her best time today. She broke 26 for the first time in prelims, and got the job done in a lifetime best 25.73 to clip Alexandra Crisera (25.77) at the finish. Crisera, who swept the backstrokes at this meet, also broke 26 for the first time and out-touched Emma Wheal (25.84) and Kaitlyn Dobler (25.88) for the silver. Wheal was the top seed coming into the meet and has a best of 25.48.
MEN’S 50 FREE:
- GOLD: Coco Bratanov– 22.60
- SILVER: Andrei Minakov– 22.77
- BRONZE: Adam Chaney- 22.87
Coco Bratanov dropped almost half a second to out-touch 100 free champ Andrei Minakov (22.77) and Adam Cheney (22.87). Bratanov hit the wall in 22.60 to break 23 for the first time. He’s now just 5 hundredths shy of the all-time top 10 Americans in the 17-18 age group. Minakov and Chaney clipped their bests by a tenth. Topher Stensby was close behind for 4th, breaking the 23 mark for the first time in 22.99.
MEN’S 800 FREE:
- GOLD: Jake Magahey– 8:03.72
- SILVER: Ivan Puskovitch– 8:07.78
- BRONZE: Jake Mitchell– 8:08.87
Jake Magahey, who won the 400 free earlier in the meet, dominated this race in 8:03.72. Last week, he swam his lifetime best 8:01.64 at Nationals to become the 8th fastest American ever among 15-16 year olds. Ivan Puskovitch dropped almost 7 seconds for the silver in 8:07.78, while Jake Mitchell dropped a whopping 13 for bronze in 8:08.87. Also under 8:10 to finish 4th was Kevin Vargas (8:09.16).
WOMEN’S 400 MEDLEY RELAY:
- GOLD: Brea Aquatics- 4:09.09
- SILVER: Irvine Novaquatics- 4:11.89
- BRONZE: SwimMAC Carolina- 4:11.98
Brea Aquatics won by over a second, with Zephy Koh leading off in 1:02.87. Jacqueline Basham took on the breast leg in 1:11.50. They were trailing halfway through, but they got the fastest splits of the field from butterflier Justina Kozan (59.64) and anchor Samantha Pearson (55.48) to secure the win.
Fastest Splits:
- Back- Annabel Crush (LAK)- 1:01.90
- Breast- Zoie Hartman (CROW)- 1:08.63
- Fly- Justina Kozan (BREA)- 59.64
- Free- Samantha Pearson (BREA)- 55.48
MEN’S 400 MEDLEY RELAY:
- GOLD: Mason Manta Rays- 3:43.63
- SILVER: Terrapins Swim Team- 3:45.66
- BRONZE: Sierra Marlins Swim Team- 3:48.44
The Mason Manta Rays took down the Meet Record to win it in 3:43.63, taking down the former mark of 3:44.83 by over a second. Carson Foster got the ball rolling with a 55.77 back split, while Jake Foster rolled through the breast leg in 1:02.83. Jacob McDonald put up a 55.53 on the fly, while Adam Chaney closed in a 49.50 free split.
Fastest Splits:
- Back- Carson Foster (RAYS)- 55.77
- Breast- Jake Foster (RAYS)- 1:02.83
- Fly- Andrei Minakov (TERA)- 51.44
- Free- Adam Chaney (RAYS)- 49.50
Claire Tuggle’s IM has been great this week. Weirdly her weakest performance came from her best event, the 200 free. She looked tired in the 200 free but not in the 200 and 400 IM. Hopefully she still has enough gas after 2 weeks of hard racing to shine at junior pan pacs. Same remark about Carson Foster who has swum a lot of races in the last 15 days.
Overall it’s sad to see that the biggest meet for US juniors has lost its prestige. Most of the best young Americans who have qualified for junior pan pacs have logically skipped that meet apart from Claire Tuggle or the Foster brothers. The only way to make that meet… Read more »
I don’t know how you define which swimming event of Claire Tuggle is her best one. Was it she or her coach who said so? If to use the world ranking as the scale then she achieved most in 400free this season. Then 800 follows. And only after that her 200free goes that is significantly worse than 400 and 800 ranking.
Missy Franklin’s name is all over these children’s records that culminated with the world record at age of 17. The record that is still out of reach for six years already. It is incredible how gifted this child was. Her story reminds me the story of wunderkind who became an ordinary person as adult.
Injuries, health issues, the mental game, etc. She beat many of us to them by a few decades (we got old and inevitably found them ourselves). She was a wonder. I hope she takes the time to recall that, and focuses on a future where she can be a wonder in other ways. Always seems like a good person. Wish her the best.
Crazy to think Missy swam a 2:12 at 14. Maybe she should be focusing on IM and not freestyle events?
I think in yards that Franklin is 3rd behind Eastin and Baker in Im .So, maybe she should switch to IM.
She’s too weak on fly and especially breaststroke for long course.
I think a base of 200fr-200IM would be a good way to go for her, if she can get back to swimming IM at a high level.
Missy’s 13/14 NAG records in long course have been made in 2009 at junior nationals during the magical suit era. I’m pretty sure she was in Speedo magical suit at that meet when she swam 25.23 in the 50 free (still the NAG record today)/54.03 in the 100 free (still the NAG record today)/1.58.67 in the 200 free/1.00.50 in the 100 back/2.09.16 in the 200 back (still the NAG record today)/2.12.73 in the 200 IM (still the NAG record today).
How many times has a foster been on the photo for juniors? Seems that at least half of them have been.