2018 Speedo Junior Nationals Day 4: Alexei Sancov Breaks Meet Record in 200 Free

Alexei Sancov. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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Friday’s finals session had some very anticipated races at the 2018 Speedo Junior National Championships, and not one, but a handful of the closest races of the meet.

During prelims,Alexei Sancov and Will Grant got within a second of meet records held by Caeleb Dressel and Michael Andrew, respectively. But only one of them reached that goal in the finals.

Results

Here is a recap of the night’s events:

Order of events

Women’s 200 Free
Men’s 200 Free
Women’s 200 Breast
Men’s 200 Breast
Women’s 100 Back
Men’s 100 Back

Women’s 200 Free

The women’s 200 free was expected to be a close race and lived up to the billing to kick off Friday’s finals session.

Erin Gemmell (2:00.74), held off Miranda Heckman (2:00.77) by three hundredths of a second and Claire Tuggle (2:00.80) by six hundredths of a second to earn the closely contested victory.

Ayla Spitz was fourth (2:01.76), followed by Ryley Ober (2:01.87), Kensey McMahon (2:02.14), Kaitlynn Sims (2:02.28) and Easop Lee (2:02.30).

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Men’s 200 Free

Alexei Sancov was trying to break the meet record in the 200 free, previously held by Caeleb Dressel. The Terrapins beat it convincingly, winning in 1:47.75. Dresser’s previous mark was 1:48.64.

Julian Hill finished second in 1:49.29, followed by Michigan Lakeshore Aquatic’s Skyler Cook-Weeks (1:50.95).

Jake Magahey was fourth (1:51.04), followed by Jack Walker (1:51.65), Pierce Dietze (1:51.70), Owen Kao (1:;52.06) and Christian Sztolcman (1:52.16).

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Women’s 200 Breast

Machine Aquatic’s Anna Keating dominated the 200 breast to win by a second on Friday.

Keating finished the race in 2:28.44, exactly a second ahead of Novaquatics’ Isabelle Odgers (2:29.44).

Claire Donan took second (2:30.67), followed by Noelle Peplowski (2:31.06), Kaitlyn Dobler (2:31.79), Chase Davison (2:32.10), Lauren Poole (2:33.87) and Ellie Andrews (2:33.95).

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Men’s 200 Breast

Another close race loomed in the men’s 200 breast, which again was decided by hundredths of a second.

AJ Pouch was in second after the first 50 but surged ahead and wouldn’t relinquish the lead in the final 100, finishing in 2:12.52.

Joshua Matheny led after the 50 but couldn’t catch Pouch once he lost the lead and finished second in 2:12.69.

Jake Foster was third in 2:13.76, followed by Ben Dillard (2:16.30), Zachary Tan (2:16.79), Dylan Rhee (2:16.80), Ethan Dang (2:17.19) and David Abrahams (2:17.76).

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Women’s 100 Back

The races had already been close throughout the night, but the women’s 100 back was as close as you can get.

Alexandra Crisera out-touched Annabel Crush by one hundredth of a second to earn the junior national title.

Crisera finished in 1:00.89, while Crush finished in 1:00.90.

Abby Kapelle was third in 1:01.68, followed by Kylee Alons (1:02.07), Janelle Rudolph (1:02.16), Tea Laughlin (1:02.49), Jessica Davis (1:02.55) and Sophie Linder (1:02.76).

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Men’s 100 Back

Will Grant started the 100 back strong and was able to hang on for a victory, but Carson Foster made things interesting, pushing Grant the entire race.

Grant finished 55.02 to hold off Foster, who finished in 55.54.

Keegan Walsh finished third in 56.28, followed by Tim Gallagher (56.53), RJ Kondalski (56.57), Jack Kirby (56.75), Ethan Harder (56.97) and Noah Yarian (57.31).

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Women’s 4×200 Free Relay

Brea Aquatics cruised to a four-second victory over the hometown Ivrine Novaquatics in the women’s 4×200 free relay to close out the session.

Zephy Koh, Marly Lough, Justina Kozan and Samantha Pearson won in 8:10.70.

Novaquatics’ Ella Ristic, Lauren Vitor, Amanda Hsieh and Ayla Spitz finished runner-up in 8:14.77.

Clovis Swim Club’s Averee Preble, Abby Samansky, Isabella Abrajan and Claire Tuggle finished third in 8:15.31.

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