3rd qualifier Michael Andrew has scratched the 100 back heading into finals of the third day at the 2015 Speedo West Winter Junior Championships.
Andrew had a busy morning, swimming the 100 fly, 100 back and 100 breast in quick succession. The 16-year-old broke National Age Group records in the fly and breast, and has now elected to swim only those two events again at finals.
His 100 back scratch moves 17-year-old Glen Cowand into lane 8 for the championship final.
The day’s other A final scratch comes out of the girls 400 IM, where 6th qualifier Evie Pfeifer is out. That bumps Isabella Goldsmith into the championship final.
Jacob Huerta scratched out of the B final of the boys 200 free, allowing Theo Andrews into the consolation heat.
In other scratch news, Lakeside Aquatic Club’s Alvin Jiang had a very up-and-down prelims session culminating in a successful finals spot. Jiang finished in a tie for 26th in the 100 fly at 49.43. 14th qualifier Chris Nicholson of RallySport Aquatic Club bowed out of the B final, and first alternate Josh Withers also scratched, leaving Jiang in a swim-off with 15-year-old Jason Park of Metroplex Aquatic for the final spot.
Jiang led by a wide margin at the 50, but Park roared back to win the swim-off 49.29 to 49.46. But current finals heat sheets show Jiang as the final swimmer in the C final, indicating that perhaps Park scratched out after the swim-off.
The boys 100 breast also saw a swim-off for the alternate role, this time with Sam Drew and Robert Hughes going head-to-head for the first alternate slot. The 17-year-old Hughes went 56.63 to win for King Aquatic Club, and Drew was 57.75. We’ll have to wait until tonight’s finals to see if Hughes gets the call to fill any empty lanes. Even if he doesn’t, the swim-off was a drop of two tenths from his prelims swim.