Claire Weinstein Edges Katie Grimes in 800 Freestyle Matchup at Swim Meet of Champions
On the final day of the Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo, Calif., Sandpipers of Nevada swimmers Katie Grimes, Bella Sims and Claire Weinstein raced the 800 freestyle, and it was Weinstein who swam a personal-best time to edge out Grimes in a tight finish.
Weinstein, 16, fell behind the 17-year-old Grimes over the first 500 meters of the race, with Grimes stretching the margin to 1.23 seconds with six laps remaining, but Weinstein battled back to take the lead with 100 meters to go. Grimes had one final surge, splitting 29.13 on the last length, but it was not enough to get the win. Weinstein touched in 8:25.95, taking more than three seconds off her previous top mark of 8:29.34, while Grimes finished in 8:26.22. Grimes ranks 16th all-time in the event with the 8:17.05 she swam at the Tokyo Olympics, and she is fourth among Americans behind Katie Ledecky, Janet Evans and Leah Smith.
Sims started strong but fell off the pace of her teammates before the halfway point. She ended up third in 8:30.85. Her best time of 8:22.36 came at last year’s U.S. International Team Trials in a third-place finish. Grimes was fourth in that race and Weinstein fifth.
The splits for all three Sandpipers swimmers are below. Notably, all three negative split their races, although Grimes did so by just four hundredths.
1 Weinstein, Clai 16 SAND-CA 8:29.34 8:25.95 OLYT 20
28.99 1:00.38 (31.39)
1:32.76 (32.38) 2:05.23 (32.47)
2:37.47 (32.24) 3:09.63 (32.16)
3:41.70 (32.07) 4:13.96 (32.26)
4:46.05 (32.09) 5:18.25 (32.20)
5:50.20 (31.95) 6:22.03 (31.83)
6:53.55 (31.52) 7:25.09 (31.54)
7:56.39 (31.30) 8:25.95 (29.56)
2 Grimes, Katie 17 SAND-CA 8:22.73 8:26.22 OLYT 17
29.59 1:00.98 (31.39)
1:33.33 (32.35) 2:05.25 (31.92)
2:37.44 (32.19) 3:09.27 (31.83)
3:41.33 (32.06) 4:13.13 (31.80)
4:45.05 (31.92) 5:17.03 (31.98)
5:49.28 (32.25) 6:21.26 (31.98)
6:53.37 (32.11) 7:25.38 (32.01)
7:57.09 (31.71) 8:26.22 (29.13)
3 Sims, Bella 17 SAND-CA 8:22.36 8:30.85 OLYT 16
28.90 1:00.41 (31.51)
1:33.07 (32.66) 2:05.85 (32.78)
2:38.46 (32.61) 3:10.99 (32.53)
3:43.50 (32.51) 4:16.24 (32.74)
4:48.56 (32.32) 5:20.94 (32.38)
5:53.50 (32.56) 6:26.07 (32.57)
6:57.74 (31.67) 7:29.37 (31.63)
8:00.65 (31.28) 8:30.85 (30.20)
This 800 free was the second freestyle best time for Weinstein this meet after swimming a time of 4:06.70 in the 400 free Friday. Weinstein broke onto the international scene in 2022 by finishing second behind Ledecky in the 200 free at the U.S. International Team Trials. She was a semifinalist in that event at the World Championships before leading off the U.S. women’s 800 free relay team that eventually won gold (with Sims anchoring). Now, she will look to extend her international abilities into the longer events.
Grimes, meanwhile, swam a best time in the 200 fly Friday that ranks second in the U.S. so far this year, and then on Saturday, she went best times of 1:57.85 in the 200 free and 4:31.81 in the 400 IM. That individual medley time surpassed the mark Grimes swam on the way to a silver-medal finish in the 400 IM at last year’s World Championships, and it is the second-quickest time in the world this year behind Summer McIntosh’s new world record.