2017 NCSA JUNIOR NATIONALS
- Tuesday, March 14 – Saturday, March 18, 2017
- Tuesday Timed Finals 4:00 PM Eastern
- Wed-Sat Prelims 8:30 AM / Finals 6:00 PM Eastern
- Live Stream
- Live results available on Meet Mobile
- Results will be posted here after each session
It was a bit of a sleepy morning in Orlando in terms of best times, but a couple of big names did set themselves up for NCSA titles Friday morning, including Phoebe Bacon and Reece Whitley.
Bacon topped the girls 100 back, the first event of the morning. Her 53.31 is still about a half-second off a lifetime-best, but was also a half-second faster than anyone in the field. Bacon, 14, will look to improve her standing as the #3 swimmer all-time in the 13-14 age group if she can best her 52.82 tonight. The NCAP swimmer is only two tenths out of the second-fastest age group swim ever, though the NAG record is way down at 51.09 from Regan Smith last year.
Penn Charter’s Whitley had a similar morning. The 17-year-old breaststroker was 1:56.64 to earn top billing in the 200 breaststroke by half a second. He really cruised out that swim, though, finishing well off his 1:52.37 best time from December. That time was the 15-16 NAG, but Whitley has now aged up into the 17-18 division. A best time tonight would put him no lower than 3rd in the higher age group with almost two years yet to come.
The girls 500 free could be a barnburner tonight. The top three qualifiers finished within four tenths of a second this morning: Genevieve Pfeifer was 4:44.43, Sierra Schmidt 4:44.85 and Paige Madden 4:44.88. The final should be much faster though, especially if Morgan Tankersley (seeded at 4:37.60 but 4:45.1 this morning) pushes closer to her best time.
Other top seeds going into finals:
- Margaret Aroesty is the fastest 200 breaststroker by a second and a half coming out of prelims. She was 2:11.79, only about six tenths off a lifetime-best.
- Gator Swim Club 16-year-old Talia Bates topped the 100 fly in 53.82.
- Jack Dolan leads the boys 100 back for Rockwood Swim Club after going 48.28 this morning. He’s also third in the 100 free, just four tenths out of first place.
- That 100 free went to David Madej of Swim Strongsville at 44.59.
- Kingfish’s Camden Murphy leads the 100 fly at 47.96. Second is Sam Pomajevich (48.15) who is also the second qualifier in the 100 free.