Bella Sims, Grant House Impress in 200 Freestyle at Speedo Summer Championships
After finishing shy of their 2024 Olympic ambitions at last month’s U.S. Olympic Trials, Bella Sims and Grant House each swam the 200 freestyle Friday evening at the Speedo Summer Championships in Irvine, Calif., and posted marks that improved upon their respective Olympic Trials times.
Sims dominated the women’s event on the way to a time of 1:57.84, much quicker than the 1:59.68 in the Trials prelims which left her 17th and two hundredths out of the semifinals. Sims was a member of the U.S. women’s 800 freestyle relay team at the last Olympics and the last two World Championships. Texas’ Jillian Cox, already the winner of the 400 and 800 free this week, took second in 1:58.47, with Athens Bulldog’s Shea Furse third (1:59.05).
House took 10th at Trials, 12-hundredths off the 1:47.00 which led to a tie for eighth place and a swim-off for the last spot in the final. In Irvine, the former Arizona State swimmer clocked a time of 1:46.54, his best time by two tenths, although it took a 1:46.09 to qualify for Paris relay duty in an exceptionally quick final. House held off Jack Dahlgren (1:47.01), while Owen McDonald, once House’s ASU teammate and now at Indiana, took third (1:47.87).
Fishers Area’s Julie Mishler won the women’s 100 backstroke in 1:01.21 ahead of Indiana’s Mya Dewitt (1:01.66) and Michigan’s Lily Cleason (1:01.97), while the men’s event went to Michigan’s Jack Wilkening in 54.30, followed by Athens Bulldog’s Ruard Van Renen (54.82) and LSU’s Stepan Goncharov (55.12).
Trojan’s Isabelle Odgers held off 15-year-old Santa Clara swimmer Mia Su in the women’s 200 breaststroke, 2:28.58 to 2:28.86, while Irvine Novaquatics’ Kaitlyn Nguyen took third (2:30.16). Iowa Flyers’ Joe Polyak edged away from SwimMAC’s Jordan Willis to top the men’s 200 breast, 2:12.60 to 2:12.96, with Trojan’s Ben Dillard third (2:13.31).
The University of Michigan women won the 400 free relay in 3:42.75 with Lindsay Flynn, Brady Kendall, Claire Newman and Abbey Ketslakh, and men’s teammates Bence Szabados, Wilkening, Ozan Kalafat and Colin Geer also touched first, posting a time of 3:18.05.