Chase Travis, Ivan Puskovitch Win U.S. National Junior Titles In 7.5K

2018 U.S. OPEN WATER NATIONAL / JUNIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, May 4 – Sunday, May 6
• Town Lake, Tempe, Arizona
• Meet Central
• Meet Info
• Start Lists
• Course Map
• Open Water World Junior Selection
• Girls 7.5K Full Results
• Boys 7.5K Full Results

Chase Travis of Nation’s Capital and Ivan Puskovitch of Episcopal Academy each earned U.S. junior national titles on Sunday in the 7.5K race in Tempe, as swimmers aged 16 and 17 battled it out for spots on this summer’s World Junior Championship team.

In the girls race, Travis held the lead throughout most of the race, ultimately winning by ten seconds. She swam to a time of 1:36:02.779, with Leah DeGeorge of the Bolles School Sharks taking 2nd in 1:36:12.259. Both swimmers earn a spot on the World Junior team in the 7.5K.

On the race, Travis said “I had a different plan going in, but a lot of things happen in a race and you just adjust … My plan was to not be in the lead the first three laps and then take the lead the last two laps but that didn’t really turn out … I just felt better than expected.”

Liberty Williams of Riverside Aquatics placed 3rd, over two minutes back in 1:38:17.517. Full results for the girls race can be found here.

For the boys, Puskovitch opened up a lead heading into lap four of five and never relinquished it, winning by a similar margin as Travis. “I qualified to represent the U.S. at World Juniors two years ago in Amsterdam, Netherlands, so my main mission coming into this meet was to re-qualify. I really just wanted to make sure I could go represent Team USA again, and I’m just really proud that I have that opportunity.”

He put up a time of 1:31:33.482, and Ethan Heasley of Hillsboro was just under ten seconds back in 1:31:43.283 to snag the second World Junior spot. Last year’s Junior National 5K winner Noah Brune (1:31:56.143) was 3rd. Full results of the boys race can be found here.

Quotes courtesy of USA Swimming.