Gretchen Walsh & Claire Curzan PB in 100 BK; #8 & #9 All-Time for 15-16 Girls

2019 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 31 – August 4, 2019
• Prelims 9:00 AM (Pacific)/Finals 5:00 PM (Pacific)
• Avery Aquatics Center
• Stanford, CA
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheet
• Omega Results

Fresh off hitting a personal best this morning and rising up to #8 in the all-time ranks for 15-16 girls, 15-year-old Claire Curzan took 2nd in finals of the 100 back at US Nationals tonight. Curzan was 1:00.44 this morning, breaking the 1:01 barrier for the first time, and earning her spot in the A final. Tonight, she bettered that time by .05 seconds, touching the wall in 1:00.39 for the Silver medal. Although she dropped from her #8 all-time swim this morning, Curzan actually ends tonight as the #9 all-time 15-16 girl. That’s because 16-year-old Gretchen Walsh blew away her previous best time to win the B final in 1:00.26. That makes Walsh the #8 performer all-time for 15-16 girls, and bumps Curzan down to 9th.

Gretchen had set her personal best in prelims as well, where she clocked a 1:01.38. Here is a split comparison between both swimmers’ prelims and finals swims today:

Curzan swam almost the exact same race tonight as this morning, just splitting .01 seconds faster on the first 50, and .04 faster coming home. Walsh, on the other hand, was out .39 seconds faster, and back .73 seconds faster.

Here is the newly updated top 10 all-time for 15-16 girls:

1. Regan Smith (2018) – 58.83
2. Phoebe Bacon (2018) – 59.12
3. Missy Franklin (2011) – 59.18
4. Isabelle Stadden (2019)- 59.71
5. Rachel Bootsma (2009) – 59.77
6. Elizabeth Pelton (2010) – 59.99
7. Lucie Nordmann (2016) – 1:00.16
8. Gretchen Walsh (2019) – 1:00.26
9. Claire Curzan (2019) – 1:00.39
10. Grace Ariola (2016) – 1:00.49