2023 Speedo Chicagoland Championship
- Feb. 9-13, 2023
- Norris Rec Center / North High School
- St. Charles, Illinois
- Results on MeetMobile: “2023 SCST Speedo Chicagoland Championship”
- originally published Feb 11th
Leah Hayes lowered her lifetime best in the 400 IM by eight seconds at the 2023 Speedo Chicagoland Championship on Friday night in St. Charles, Illinois.
The 17-year-old University of Virginia commit clocked a time of 4:03.05, blowing away her previous-best 4:11.60 from last February. Hayes’ new personal best would rank as the top time in the NCAA this season, just ahead of current Cavaliers Ella Nelson (4:03.61) and Alex Walsh (4:03.79), if the high school junior was already swimming collegiately.
As the splits comparison below shows, her biggest drops came on the back half of the race, shaving nearly four seconds off her breaststroke split and more than two seconds off her freestyle leg.
Splits Comparison, Leah Hayes’ Best 400 IM Times
| Feb. 2023 | Feb. 2022 | |
| 100 fly | 55.16 | 56.94 |
| 100 back | 1:02.83 | 1:03.46 |
| 100 breast | 1:09.09 | 1:12.95 |
| 100 free | 55.97 | 58.25 |
| Total | 4:03.05 | 4:11.60 |
Hayes, a member of the Fox Valley Park District Riptides, moves up to No. 8 in the girls 17-18 national age group (NAG) rankings.
400-Yard IM, Girls 17-18 NAG Rankings
- Bella Sims – 3:56.59 (2022)
- Ella Eastin – 3:58.40 (2016)
- Maya DiRado – 3:59.88 (2012)
- Katie Hoff Anderson – 4:00.66 (2007)
- Elizabeth Beisel – 4:00.83 (2011)
- Brooke Forde – 4:01.04 (2018)
- Katie Ledecky – 4:01.69 (2015)
- Leah Hayes – 4:03.05 (2022)
It’s worth noting that Katie Grimes also blazed a 3:57.02 at Winter Juniors in December to break the 15-16 NAG record. Hayes, a World Championships bronze medalist in the 200 IM, is ranked as the No. 2 recruit in the high school class of 2024 right behind Grimes.
In other action from Friday’s timed finals, 14-year-old Brayden Capen dropped five seconds in the 500 free, posting a 4:33.82 that just barely cracked the top 100 NAG rankings at No. 97. Racing continues Saturday and Sunday with prelims and finals both days.
Wahoooowa
so excited for her to swim for the hoos!!
Way to go ladies! Keep up the great work!
Jeahusus
Looks like UVA is going to be dominant for awhile.
Yet another example of why the US Olympic Trials is the most stressful swim meet on earth.
?
Leah is so fun to root for. Excited to see how the next couple years go for her.
I think all of the people writing off Hayes for a 200IM spot in Paris are being premature.
Walsh, Hayes and Douglass are all in with an equal chance (and who knows who else might emerge by then).
I’d give Walsh the highest chance but second spot is probably a tossup between Hayes and Douglass assuming both of them (well Douglass, since Hayes is obviously swimming it) focus on swimming the event
Walsh has the fastest PB (by far) in LCM. Douglass has the fastest PB (by far) in SCM. Hayes has a faster LCM PB than Douglass and is significantly younger than both of them.
Anything could happen.
anything can happen of course, but realistically I don’t see a 20 year old swimming a 2:07.1 missing out at the Olympics at age 22. Maybe Douglass and Hayes will surprise me and both go a 2:06 next year and knock Walsh out of the event, but for now I don’t see that happening at all
It’s not at all hard to imagine Douglass and Hayes both going 2:07s and then it doesn’t look like a shoo-in. I think Walsh has been 2:07 once. Of course she can go faster too.
it’s not too hard to imagine but at the same time, I can’t imagine Walsh not being the favorite for the event at this point. She’s been 2:07 twice btw, once at trials and once actually at worlds.
It just seems ironic that Sub13 of all people thinks that Douglass and Walsh have an equal shot at the 200 IM spot when he’s the one that’s been reminding everyone that short course performance =/= long course performance under anything relating to Douglass and the 200 breast
You’re right, SCM performance does not equal LCM performance. But there’s a massive difference between people thinking Douglass is going to drop 4 seconds off her LCM 200 breast because of a SCY record that’s only 0.7 faster than when she set her LCM PB, and her potentially dropping a second in the 200IM when she smashed her SCM PB by over 2 seconds since the last time she swam it 18 months ago.
Like… it’s just basic logic and critical thinking. You see how those things are different right?
you just don’t like the UVA swimmers. You’ll be disappointed.
2022 Toyota U.S. Open
W 200 IM (LCM)
Smith, Regan – 2:10.40
Hayes, Leah – 2:10.67
Leah Hayes can’t even beat Regan Smith in the W 200 IM (LCM), yet you are talking about Leah Hayes beating an in form Kate Douglass setting personal best times in the 100 BK, 100 BR, 200 BR during the 2022-2023 NCAA Season. What a joke!
Leah Hayes has a better shot in the W 400 IM if Emma Weyant continues to regress in the W 400 IM. In addition, Emma Weyant was brutal in the W 400 IM (4:41.85) at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Open. Even Katie Ledecky posted a faster time (4:36.09) in the W 400 IM at the most recent Pro Swim Series (Knoxville).
Kate Douglass has not swum the W 200 IM (LCM) since the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo 2021). Meanwhile, Leah Hayes recently lost to Regan Smith in the W 200 IM (LCM) at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Open.
Regan Smith beat Leah Hayes in the W 200 IM (LCM) at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Open. Time to pump the breaks.
Wait, did Regan Smith beat Leah Hayes at the 2022 Toyota US open?
People writing anyone off for any event is premature at this point. People forget it because people like Phelps, Ledecky, and Dressel make it look easy to qualify, but the Olympic Trials is really not a lock for anyone. Whether overtrained or undertrained, sick or healthy, nervous or calm, the favorites do not always win, and there’s usually surprise second place finishers too.
Yet, Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh have already swum and medalled at the Summer Olympics and World Championships. Nothing beats experience.
And we can’t write-off Bella Sims either if she chooses to swim it.
Don’t think she’ll be swimming it
Bella Sims better focus on the W 200 FR if she wants to swim the women’s 4 x 200 freestyle relay at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
The women’s 100 meter backstroke is a bloodbath. Bella Sims can forget about that event. The women’s 100 meter butterfly is less onerous. Bella Sims has a better shot in that event.
Sims is not competitive with Walsh, Douglas, and Hayes in LC 200IM.
That’s a no brainer especially to those who watched the 2022 Short Course World Swimming Championships.
W 200 IM
Douglass > Walsh
W 200 BR
Douglass > King
“This girl is on fire”
Alicia Keys
Based on the most recent information, I’ll bet on Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh in the W 200 IM at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
She doesn’t have the breaststroke to compete with the rest in a LC IM. She has far better alternative events.
lolwut? Her breastroke is top level.
It’s ridiculous to discuss the 2024 Summer Olympics when the International Team Trials for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships have yet to be conducted.
It’s fun to discuss the 2024 Summer Olympics even when the International Team Trials for the 2023 World Aquatic Championships have yet to be conducted
It’s a waste of time just like the ludicrous selection process for the USA Swimming Team at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships for the following year.
Yet you are here making dozens of posts sharing your opinions. That’s all others are doing as well. Oops, maybe I didn’t realize your opinion is the only one that matters.
I would say this about literally nobody else on this site but the level of discussion plummets when relay names guy starts blitzing the section with nonsense.
I think that’s one of the few things we pretty much all agree on.
At least he’s equally rude and weird to everyone so he doesn’t discriminate lol