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ORLANDO – Highlighted by a a national age group record by Nation’s Capital in the men’s 400 medley relay, this morning’s short course prelims at the NCSA junior nationals set up some exciting races for tonight’s finals to wrap up competition in the five-day meet.
Andrew Seliskar of Nation’s Capital will be swimming his final two races at the NCSA junior tonight. The California-Berkeley future freshman is the top seed in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle. He cruised to a 1:45.93 in the 200 IM prelims, and we’ll see if he can break 2:00 in the long course 200 IM tonight for the third time in his career and beat his lifetime best of 1:59.84. Seliskar posted the only swim under 20 seconds in the 50 free prelims with a 19.89. That’s his first time under 20 seconds, as his previous best was 20.06 from last year’s juniors. Look for Seliskar to continue to improve in the 50 free when he goes to Berkeley next fall and contribute in the 200 free relay.
Teammate John Shebat took the top seed in the other men’s event, the 50 backstroke, with a 22.55. The top eight finishers all broke 23 seconds, and will try to translate their speed in short course to tonight’s long course race.
Katie Drabot and Stanzi Moseley will be looking for their second wins of the meet tonight, while Zoe Avestruz will try to keep Lucie Nordmann from sweeping the backstroke events. Drabot of Ozaukee Aquatics was the only swimmer under two minutes in the 200 IM this morning, posting a 1:59.35 for the top seed. Expect a tight battle among Reni Moshos, Cassidy Bayer, Carly Cummings and Emily Barksdale tonight, as the four all posted times in the 2:00 range. Roadrunner Aquatics’ Moseley was the fastest of the prelims swims by six tenths, posting a 22.35. Casey Fanz (22.89), Zoe Avestruz (22.91) and Drabot (22.91) were all under 23 seconds.
In the 50 back, Avestruz of Aquajets is the top seed with a 25.22, just four hundredths ahead of Nordmann’s 25.26. Nordmann, representing The Woodlands Swim Team, won the 100 and 200 backstrokes earlier in the meet.
The 400 medley relays wrapped up short course racing at the meet today. Nation’s Capital dipped under their 15-18 national age group record by .08 in the men’s race with a 3:12.58 to sweep the men’s relays and break their third relay national record at the meet. (See link above for splits and analysis.) The Aquajets also swept the relays on the women’s side, and closed out relay action in fine fashion with a 1-2 sweep of the 400 medley relay. Avestruz (53.53), Olivia Anderson (1:01.29), Kaia Grobe (54.87) and Rachel Wittmer (51.09) won with a 3:40.78. The Aquajets B team of Carly Quast (54.81), Alexandra Preiss (1:01.66), Breinne Thorne (54.80) and Emma Wittmer (51.02) placed second with a 3:42.29.
Full results available by clicking the link below.
2015 NCSA Junior Nationals, Day 5 Prelims – Results
