2023 DECEMBER HUNTINGTON BEACH SECTIONALS
- December 14-18, 2023
- Huntington Beach, CA
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Mobile: 2023 CA Dec CA CV Speedo Sectionals at GWSC
It was a big night for 500 freestylers in California. While Luka Mijatovic was on a tear in the men’s 500 free, Sandpiper teammates Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein put on a show in the women’s event to climb the age group rankings and finish 1-2.
Weinstein led for the majority of the race, flipping 0.85 seconds ahead of Grimes at the 250 mark. Grimes started to narrow the gap in the back-half, using a big 26.18 on the final 50 to finally overtake Weinstein and take the win in a new best time of 4:28.27.
That places Grimes #2 in the 17-18 age group, leap-frogging former Sandpiper teammate Bella Sims to sit between her and Katie Ledecky. With that swim, she became the third 17-18 year-old in history to break 4:30, though she had already done it in the 15-16 age group.
Weinstein touched second in 4:29.38, lowering her previous best time by over 3.5-seconds. She jumps from #5 to #3 in the 15-16 age group, behind Summer McIntosh (who represents Canada) and Katie Ledecky.
See the split comparison from their race below.
| Katie Grimes | Claire Weinstein | |
| #2 17-18 | #3 15-16 | |
| 100y | 52.55 | 52.22 |
| 200y | 54.44 | 54.10 |
| 300y | 54.10 | 53.95 |
| 400y | 53.90 | 54.43 |
| 500y | 53.28 | 54.68 |
| Total Time | 4:28.27 | 4:29.38 |
Grimes finished in 1:46.99 and closed in a 1:47.18, which would be a great high school time as an independent 200 free.
Grimes and Weinstein cleared the field by over 17 seconds. Their teammate Applejean Gwinn also hit a best time to finish in a distant 3rd (4:46.87), dropping over five seconds for her first sub-4:50 swim. She closed in a 55-second final 100 yard split.
Notably, that was Grimes’ second win of the night. She also won the 200 fly (1:54.46) to open the session.
Is Grime’s going to swim in NCAA? Which School?
Ron is BY FAR, The best MD/D coach in the nation!
I,,,, half of the women ever under 4:30 are sandpipers? Their performance in mid distance & distance is wild.
(With Katie/ Bella 2nd &3rd all time US performers and 3rd/4th all time since summer has also gone sub 4:30)
What was Sim’s time again?
Sims went 4:28.6 and Grimes 4:29.5 at 2022 winter juniors.
Applejean Gwinn is such a goated name
Nice progression swim by Grimes. With the obvious exception of the first 100 due to the start, getting faster every 100 is tough. Opening in 1:46.99 and then closing in a 1:47.18. Great swim. Actually don’t know if distance swimmers practice that. I know it’s a staple in marathon running training and usually done on the 1 mile splits, But 2 to 4 hours is physiologically different than 4 – 16 minutes so I just don’t know if you would get beneficial muscle and energy system recruitment responses training for shorter time targets. I don’t really recall doing progression runs for 5k training, though I did for 10k.
Anyway that jumped out at me from her splits and I thought… Read more »
It is incredibly difficult to progressive neg split a 500. Unlike running you have no watch to check your splits and moreover in swimming it often feels like you are getting faster when you’re not— at least for mere mortals.