Katie Grimes Swims Three Meet Records to Close Out California Sectionals

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
• Live Results

The Huntington Beach Sectionals is in the books. The last session was once again highlighted by Luka Mijatovic, who lowered his own 13-14 national age group record in the 1000 once again. He finished 2nd overall to Luke Ellis, who dropped over 12 seconds to establish a new best time and meet record (8:45.19). Another Sandpiper, Joshua Brown, got under 9:00 for the first time to finish 3rd (8:50.67). Gabriel Manteufel had the fastest swim out of the early heats to place 4th overall, clocking 8:51.54 for a huge personal best and the #5 time for 15-16 boys.

Katie Grimes took out three meet records to close out her weekend. First, she won the 200 back in 1:50.56, a best time by nine-tenths of a second. That beat out former Sandpiper teammate Bella Sims’ meet record, which stood at 1:51.69 from 2021. Grimes was back in the water two events later to win the 200 IM (1:56.44). While she was off her best time of 1:55.33, she still got under the meet record set by Ella Eastin in 2014 (1:56.78).

In the 400 free relay, Grimes (49.79)  teamed up with Rebecca Diaconescu (48.82), Applejean Gwinn (51.65), and Claire Weinstein (50.29) to clock 3:20.55 and break Novaquatics’ meet record from 2003 (3:21.14). The quartet topped the field by over 3.5-seconds. Diaconescu (49.03) and Weinstein (49.17) went 1-2 in the 100 free earlier in the session. Diaconescu also placed 2nd behind Grimes in the 200 back (1:55.74) while Gwinn placed 2nd in the 200 IM (2:00.70).

Other Highlights

• Chloe Teger (ORCA) dropped almost 24 seconds to win the women’s 1650 free (16:36.63).
• Andrija Petkovic, a senior at UCSD, won the men’s 100 free (44.63). UCSD-commit Hunter Cehelnik finished 2nd (44.76).
• Taisei Saito (Alpha Aquatics) improved his time in the 200 back by four-tenths (1:46.16) after hitting a huge PB at Winter Juniors (West) just one week ago. Before this winter, his fastest time was 1:49.03.
• Evan Yoo (Alpha Aquatics) won the 200 IM (1:47.38), off his best time of 1:46.15 from the 2022 Patriot League Championships.
• Gian Santos (46.28), Derek Hitchens (44.84), Will Chen (45.41), and Andrew Maksymowski (45.36) of Novaquatics teamed up to win the men’s 400 free relay (3:01.89).

Final Team Scores

Girls Top 5

1. Sandpipers of Nevada – 1902
2. Irvine Novaquatics – 874.5
3. Mission Viejo Nadadores – 776.5
4. Riverside Aquatics Association – 689.5
5. Canyons Aquatic Club – 648

Boys Top 5

1. Sandpipers of Nevada – 1496
2. Irvine Novaquatics – 1149
3. Alpha Aquatics – 1034
4. Evolution Racing Club – 768
5. Pleasanton Seahawks – 630