American Junior Swimmers GO OFF

Winter Juniors: East and West, Fast Swims Around the 🌎

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SWIM NERD
December 12, 2022

Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming.

  • Winter Juniors: πŸ’₯ East and West πŸ’₯ and Fast Swims From Around the 🌎

  • πŸ“œ Swim Set of the Week

  • 🀑 Swimming Meme of the Week

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Winter Juniors πŸŠβ€β™€οΈ

🀩 of the East

Summer McIntosh (Sarasota Sharks)

One week removed from the U.S. Open Championships, Summer McIntosh lit up the Greensboro Aquatic Center once again. Here are some of her top results:

500 Freestyle: πŸ”₯4:27.52πŸ”₯ - #2 in history only to Katie Ledecky πŸ‘ΈπŸΌ

200 Freestyle (individual: 1:40.63 // relay split: 1:40.19)

100 Butterfly: 51.10

200 Backstroke: 1:49.98

200 Butterfly: 1:51.40

100 Freestyle (leading off the last relay): 47.88

Thomas Heilman (Cavalier Aquatics)

This 15-year-old put on the finest performance from a 15 year old since Michael Phelps. I'll let his times speak for themselves:

100 Butterfly: (Relay Split: 44.95 // Individual: πŸ”₯44.67πŸ”₯) - Also #1 in the Nation

200 IM: 1:41.71 - #3 in the Nation

50 Butterfly (relay): 20.26 - fastest split from Jrs 🀯

200 Butterfly: 1:40.86 - #3 in the Nation

Alex Shackell (Carmel Swim Club)

16-year-old Alex Shackell also had a fantastic meet. Scoring 97 points and winning four individual events and placing second her fifth. She is the future of sprinting for America.

100 Freestyle: πŸ”₯47.44πŸ”₯ - tied for #5 in the nation

200 IM: 1:54.54 - #4 in the nation

100 Butterfly: 50.97 (prelim) - #7 in the nation

200 Butterfly: 1:53.52 - #5 in the nation

Kaii Winkler (Eagle Aquatics)

We wrote all about Kaii in last week's newsletter, after he broke the 15-16 NAG in the 100 Free. Well, he did it again this week, dropping a 42.2! He also swam in a head to head race with Stanford commit, Henry McFadden in the 200 Freestyle where they both went 1:33 low. One of the races of the meet:

Erika Pelaez (Eagle Aquatics)

Currently ranked as the top recruit on SwimCloud's recruitment index, Erika Pelaez week was full of best times and second place finishes in a wide variety of events. Pelaez finished second in the 50 Freestyle (21.91), 100 Freestyle (47.91), 200 Freestyle (1:44.95), and 100 Backstroke (51.62) - all were personal best times! Her bf is Kaii Winkler, who swims on the same team.

Tristan DenBrok (SwimAtlanta)

17-year-old Tristan DenBrok had quite a meet. It was highlighted by his 26.56-second drop in the 1,650 freestyle. He won the event in a time of 14:58.81 (after coming into the meet seeded 15th!). DenBrok also finished second in the 500 freestyle in a time of 4:16.52 with a three-second drop off his best time. DenBrok is committed to swim at the University of Georgia.

Charlotte Crush (Lakeside Swim Team)

For 14-year-old Charlotte Crush, this week was likely a good one to remember. She scored 75 points and won the 100 backstroke in a time of 51.01 (NAG Record). She also placed second in the 200 backstroke in a personal best time of 1:52.75, as well as placed third in the 100 butterfly. Check out her magnificent underwaters (and her look of disbelief after the race).

🀩 of the West

Bella Sims (Sandpipers of NV)

Arguably the single most impressive SCY performance ever, Bella Sims had the meet of her life. She's also THE BEST in front of the camera. She's going to be an absolute superstar come Paris.

200 Freestyle: πŸ”₯1:40.78πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation

200 IM: πŸ”₯1:52.73πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation

100 Backstroke: πŸ”₯50.53πŸ”₯ - #3 in the nation

200 Backstroke: πŸ”₯1:48.32πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation

200 Butterfly: πŸ”₯1:51.06πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation

100 Freestyle: πŸ”₯47.16πŸ”₯ - #3 in the nation

500 Freestyle: πŸ”₯4:28.64πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation

Katie Grimes (Sandpipers of NV)

The Pipers had another star in Tokyo Olympian Katie Grimes this week. Though she was slightly disappointed with her swims, let's agree that she was top-shelf quick:

400 IM: πŸ”₯3:57.02πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation by over six seconds

1650 Freestyle: πŸ”₯15:26.17πŸ”₯ - #1 in the nation by over 30 seconds and moves her from #9 all-time to #5.

500 Freestyle: 4:29.53 - #3 in the nation

200 Backstroke: 1:52.04

200 Freestyle: 1:43.83

Max Williamson (Lakeside Aquatic Club)

Currently ranked the #1 recruit for the high school class of 2025 by SwimCloud, 16-year-old Max Williamson of the Lakeside Aquatic Club had a 134-point weekend in Texas. He set both meet and National Age-Group records. 21 swims... Here are the top ones:

400 IM: πŸ”₯3:39.83πŸ”₯

200 Freestyle: 1:33.07

200 IM: 1:42.07

100 Freestyle: 42.49

100 Backstroke: 46.90

200 Backstroke: 1:40.88

Teagen O'Dell (Mission Viejo)

Currently the #2 recruit for the class of 2025 by SwimCloud, 16-year-old Teagan O'Dell scored 97 points, had multiple second-place finishes, and won the 100 freestyle in 48.47. O'Dell also finished second in the 200 IM (1:55.61), 100 Backstroke (51.86), 200 Backstroke (1:51.00), and placed fourth in the 200 freestyle (1:43.94)

A final word on Winter Junior Nationals... If there were a theme or two for the swims we observed this week, it is versatility & depth. Many of the stars won in multiple strokes and a variety of distances. There were so many great swims, you can't write about them all.

While the East Coast looks to be the stronger Coast right now, Ron Aitken's Sandpipers continue to be on another level. We didn't even mention Claire Weinstein, Macky Hodges, or Luke Ellis.

USA's stable is full.

πŸŠβ€β™€οΈ Fast Swims Around the World 🏊🏼

Tennessee's Gui Caribe blasted 21.8/47.8 long course freestyle times outside in Brazil.

Dan Wiffin's improvement continues. Now two years at Loughborough, and he's dropped a minute in his 1500. He is now Top 10 ALL TIME in the 1500 SCM. Impressive. His identical twin brother, Nathan, also dipped under 15 minutes.

Check out their YouTube channel here.

Cody Simpson with a new PB over the weekend. He is looking strong.

inside with brett hawke banner logo transparent

BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

Kristen Murslack is an Assistant Coach at the University of Florida for both the Men's and Women's programs. Prior to UF, she spent two years coaching at the University of Pittsburgh after swimming all four years at Auburn.

In this conversation, Kristen talks about women in coaching, finding her own identity, and if the Gators can win NCAA's. She also provides an update on Caeleb Dressel and explains how she's never heard a single complaint come out of Katie Ledecky's mouth.

Yesterday we (Brett, Nate, & Sonny) talked about Short Course World Championships, which begin tomorrow in Melbourne, Australia.

Beefy Tom Shields also stopped by to discuss why USA Swimming doesn't send short course swimmers to short course meets.

πŸ“ SWIM SET OF THE WEEK πŸ“

200 Set from Dave Salo

Broken set (done at the beginning of the season)

3x50's at 200 Pace

The rest between the 3x50's is equal to half of your goal pace. So if your best time is 2 minutes and your goal time is 30 seconds, then you get 15 seconds between each 50.

You can do this for your 100's, as well. Just do 3x25's.

🀑 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK 🀑

I kinda like the typo in Heilman's name. It's what I screamed after the race, "HOLY HELL MAN!"

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