The 2015 TYR Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions, known in the swimming community as SMOC, was held June 25-28 at the Marguerite Aquatic Center in Mission Viejo. The competition was outstanding and fans were not disappointed.
The Mission Viejo Nadadores won the meet with a score of 685. Nitro (Austin, TX) was second with 528 and University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) finished third with 508.5 points. The female and male swimmer who scored the most points during the meet won an iPad for their over-all performance. Katie McLaughlin (Mission Viejo Nadadores) won the women’s high-point award with 77 points and Nitro’s Sean Grieshop won the men’s high-point award with 83 points.
Photo Courtesy: T Sorenson, Mission Viejo Nadadores
Thursday
Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott
Friday
Friday evening began with a new meet and pool record in the women’s 100-meter freestyle. Abbey Weitzell of Canyons (Santa Clarita, CA) won in 54.42, less than a stroke ahead of McLaughlin, who finished in 55.05. Roadrunner’s (Bakersfield, CA) Stanzi Moseley, a U.S. Junior Team member finished third in 55.30. All three ladies finished under the U.S. Olympic Trial berth of 56.49. Shelton finished ninth and earned an Olympic Trial berth.
In the men’s 100-meter freestyle, nearly all eyes were on USC Trojan, Santo Condorelli, and Olympian, Nathan Adrian’s, meet and pool records of 48.54 set in 2012. Condorelli won the event in 49.65, touching USC teammate, Cristian Quintero by 0.01, so Adrian’s records are safe for now. Cascade’s (Calgary, Canada) Yuri Kisil finished third in 50.18.
McLaughlin opted to not swim the 200 butterfly in finals, leaving the field open in the finals. Olympian and USC Trojan, Haley Anderson won the event in 2:10.84, but was nowhere near McLaughlin’s prelim time of 2:07.93, which is the 10th fastest 200 butterfly time in the world this year and a new meet record. Sonia Wang (AZOT, Irvine, CA) finished second in 2:12.60, and Ella Eastin, SOCAL (Tustin, Irvine, and Santa Anna, CA) and U.S. Junior Team member (finished just behind in 2:12.98.
Justin Lynch (CAL, Berkeley, CA), who broke Olympian, Michael Phelps’ National Age Group (NAG) records in the 13-14 and 15-16 year-old 100-meter butterfly, won the 200-meter butterfly in 1:58.43, just over a half second ahead of the U.S. Junior Team and Nadadores’ Grant Shoults who finished in 1:59.15. Corey Okubo (AZOT), who is also a U.S. Junior Team member, finished third in 2:00.80. Ken Takahashi (Nadadores) finished sixth in 2:03.95.
Hopkins Mariner (New Haven, CT) Erin Earley owned the women’s 200-meter backstroke, finishing in 2:11.62, two seconds ahead of Cascade’s Brooklyn Snodgrass, a bronze medalist in the 50 free at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Snodgrass touched the wall in 2:13.62. USC Trojan, Hannah Weiss finished just 0.12 behind in 2:13.78.
Just six heats after finishing third in the 200 butterfly, Okubo came back to win the men’s 200-meter backstroke in 2:02.55, edging out AZOT teammate, Danny Tran, who finished in 2:03.03. Tran and Okubo are members of the 15-16 boys NAG record holing 4 x 100-yard medley relay. Nitro’s Gus Whiteman finished about a stroke behind in 2:04.19.
Anderson, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist in the open water 10K, proved that 400 meters wasn’t too short of a race for her. She won in 4:12.33. Allie Davis (Unattached, IN) finished second in 4:13.07. Shelton earned another Olympic Trial berth on her way to a 4:14.72 third-place finish. Sydney Franzen of the Nadadores finished seventh in 4:23.54.
USC Trojan, Mads Glaesner, swam a 3:49.91 in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, far out- pacing the field and just breaking Nadadores’, Larsen Jensen’s, 2008 pool and meet record of 3:49.98. Shoults finished second in 3:54.16, using a strong finish to out-touch Sean Grieshop (Nitro), who went 3:54.40. Grieshop broke the 15-16 boys NAG record in the 500-yard freestyle in 2014. Norman finished fifth in 3:58.55 and Smith followed close behind to finish sixth in 3:59.00.
The Nadadores women’s team of Shelton, Franzen, Epps, and McLaughlin finished far ahead of the heat to win the 400-meter free relay in 3:49.84, breaking the pool and meet record previously held by the Queensland (Austrailia) team since 2006. The Nadadores were followed by the University of British Columbia (UBC) (Vancouver-Okanagan, Canada) team in 3:53.91, and the Canyons Aquatic Club finished third in 3:55.99.
UBC won the men’s 400-meter freestyle relay in 3:26.62. Canyons finished second in 3:27.02, and Nitro finished third in 3:30.85.
Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold
Saturday
In the women’s 200-meter freestyle, McLaughlin broke Brittany Elmslie’s meet and pool records of 1:57.75, winning the event in 1:57.55. Davis finished a rather distant second in 2:00.10 and Mosely finished third in 2:00.42. Shelton took the fourth spot with a time of 2:01.99, with Franzen finishing fifth in 2:03.94.
USC Trojan and Venezuelan Olympian, Cristian Qunitero led the Trojan sweep of the men’s 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:49.09. Teammates Reed Malone and Glaesner finished second and third, respectively. In a very tight race for second between the top seven contenders in the field, Malone, a U.S. National Team member finished in 1:50.75, and Glaesner finished in 1:51.00. Shoults finished fifth in 1:51.10.
UBC’s Tera Van Belien destroyed the field in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:30.04. TOBA’s Kelsey Wog (Manitoba, Canada) finished second in 2:31.61. Marin Pirates’ (Novato, CA) Riley Scott finished third in 2:32.82.
In the men’s 200-meter breaststroke, Nitro’s Will Licon, who is also an NCAA Division I Champion for the University of Texas, bested two-time Japanese Olympian and former world record holder in the 100- and 200-meter breastrokes, Kosuke Kitajima, to win the event in 2:12.92. Kitajima (Coca-Cola, Tokyo, Japan) finished a distant second in 2:16.67. Kitajima was able to retain his meet and pool records of 2:11.02 set in 2011. Terrapins’ (Concord, CA) Sean Mahoney couldn’t quite pass Kitajima and settled for third with a time of 2:16.86.
In the women’s 50-meter freestyle, Weitzell won in 25.19. In a tight race for second, Moseley edged AZOT’s Eva Merrell by 0.06 with Mosely going 26.01 and Merrell in at 26.07. McLaughlin went 25.88 in prelims, but opted to swim the event backstroke in finals, finishing eighth in 28.35.
Danny Tucker (Boilermaker Aquatics, Lafayette, IN) won the men’s 50 free in 22.68. Tucker was followed by Alex Loginov (Toronto Swim Club, Toronto, Canada) in 22.84. Condorelli finished a close third in 22.95.
In a tight women’s 400-meter individual medley race, Anderson edged out Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson (Greater Ottawa Kingfish, Ottawa, Canada) 4:44.64 to 4:45.04. Nitro’s Regan Barney finished third in 4:47.00.
In the men’s event, Grieshop won in 4:21.08, Okubo was second in 4:23.94, and Takahashi finished third in 4:29.03.
On Saturday evening, the Nadadores women won the relay again. This time it was the 800-meter freestyle relay. The Nadadores won in 8:15.01, nearly 25 meters ahead of their closest competition. They were followed by the Tualatin Hills Thunderbolts (Tualatin Hills, OR) in 8:28.52, and Team Alberta (Alberta, Canada) finished third in 8:28.74.Not to be outdone by the ladies, in the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay, the Mission Viejo men’s relays finished first and third. The “A” relay won in 7:37.55, and the “B” relay finished in 7:49.71. Nitro prevented the Nadadores sweep by finishing second in 7:39.95.
Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott
Sunday
The Sandpipers went one-two in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle with Emery winning in 16:46.34 and Sullivan finishing second in 16:51.10. Conejo Simi Swim Club’s (Conejo-Simi, CA) Allie Fogleman finished third in 17:07:04.
In the men’s 800-meter freestyle, Jordan Wilmovsky (Team Santa Monica, Santa Monica, CA) won in 7:59.72. Houck earned second in 8:02.78, while Norman finished third in 8:06.89. Smith finished seventh in 8:16.12.
On Sunday, McLaughlin won, but just missed the meet and pool records in the women’s 100-meter butterfly. She finished in 57.87, while the record stands at 57.40, set in 2013 by Katerine Savard. Kendyl Stewart of North Coast Aquatics (Carlsbad-La Jolla, CA) and a U.S. National Team member, finished second in 58.05. Noemi Thomas (UBC) finished third in 59.02.
In the men’s 100-meter butterfly, Condorelli was able to capture his second win of the meet. His 53.56 was almost a half-second faster than Trojans’ Ralf Tribuntsov’s, a member of the Estonia National Team, 54.00. Clovis Swim Club’s (Clovis, CA) Carl Weigley finished third in 54.07. Shoults finished fourth in 54.49.
Snodgrass took the women’s 100-meter backstroke in 1:01.71. Team Alberta’s Ingrid Wilm finished in 12:02.44 to out-touch Trojan’s Weiss, who finished third in 1:02.55.
Trojans’ Dylan Carter won the men’s 100-meter backstroke in 55.53. Russel Wood (Upper Canada Swim Club, Brockville, Canada) prevented the Trojan sweep by finishing second in 55.78, just ahead of Trojans’ Tribuntsov, who finished in 56.13.
The women’s 100-meter breaststroke was a hotly contested race dominated by Canadian swimmers. The Canadians swept the women’s 100-meter breaststroke with Wog winning in 1:09.27, Van Belien second in 1:09.52, and Rebecca Terejko (UBC) tying for third with Bronwyn Pasloski (Cascade) in 1:10.44.
In the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, Licon once again bested Kitajima, but this time the race was much closer 1:01.50 to 1:01.98. Kitajima was once again able to retain his meet and pool records of 1:01.01. Trojans’ Jason Block finished third in 1:02.41.
In the women’s 200-meter individual medley, Seltenreich-Hodgson was in command of the race finishing in 2:14.99 and easily holding off Eastin, who finished second in 2:17.12. Barney finished third in 2:17.82.
Anton Panferov (Riptide, Huntington Beach, CA) held off Shoults to win the men’s 200- meter individual medley in 2:03.33. Shoults finished second in 2:03.83. Okubo capped off a great meet with a third-place finishing time of 2:04.25. Takahashi finished seventh in 2:08.10.
The women finished the meet with the 400-meter medley relay. Canada was on top of the field in this event with UBC winning in 4:12.37 and Team Alberta second in 4:17.27. Tualatin Hills finished third in 4:17.77. The Mission Viejo Nadadores “A” relay finished seventh in 4:25.50.
The final event for the men was also the 400-meter medley relay, and again, the Canadians did well, but Canyons won in 3:47.71. UBC finished second in 3:48.19, and Edmonton-Keyano finished third in 3:50.79. The Mission Viejo Nadadores “A” relay finished seventh in 3:55.42.
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