• East Results
• West Results

Katie Grimes and Zhier Fan both set new meet records at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships West meet, while Thomas Heilman continued his National Age Group record-breaking streak at the East meet as the Speedo Winter Junior Championships came to a close Saturday night in Austin, Texas and Greensboro, North Carolina. 

Sandpipers of Nevada claimed the West team title with 641.5 points, well ahead of Rose Bowl Aquatics (365) and Lakeside Aquatic Club (361). Rose Bowl won the men’s meet with 331 points while Sandpipers took the women’s crown with 525.5 points.

Carmel Swim Club won the East combined team title with 659 points, just in front of SwimMAC Carolina’s 617.5. Dynamo Swim Club rounded out the top three in 480.5. Bolles School won the men’s title with 427 points, while Carmel won the women’s meet with 511 points. 

Grimes got the West meet off to a fast start, dropping more than 30 seconds off her seed time to win the women’s 1650-yard free in 15:34.72, a new Juniors west and overall meet record. Her teammate, 14-year-old Claire Weinstein, also had a gigantic time drop, slicing 36 seconds off her best time to take second in 15:52.84 to set a new 13-14 National Age Group Record. Grimes later finished second in the women’s 200 back with a 1:52.83, just behind Phoenix Swim Club’s Kennedy Noble (1:52.73). 

Metroplex Aquatics’ Zhier Fan grabbed the other Juniors meet record of the night with a winning time of 1:52.92 in the men’s 200y breast, nearly four seconds better than second place finisher Andrew Zou. Emma Weber of the Denver Hilltoppers swept the breaststroke events on the women’s side, winning the 200y breast tonight in 2:09.04 to add to her win in the 100 breast last night. 

Sixteen-year-old Bella Sims of Sandpipers of Nevada closed out an exceptional meet with two more wins, this time in the women’s 100y free (48.52) and 200y fly (1:53.91). Sims actually tied for the win in the 100y free, as Leah Hayes of Fox Valley also touched in 48.52. Sims’ teammate, Ilya Kharun, added his second win of the meet in the men’s 200y fly with a 1:42.39 after setting a 15-16 National Age Group record in the 100y fly last night. 

Pikes Peak Athletics’ Quintin McCarty took home the sprint double from Austin, adding a win in the men’s 100y free (42.78) to his win in the 50y free earlier in the meet. 

FAST Swim Team’s Matthew Chai (1650y free, 14:45.37) and Lake Oswego’s Nick Simons (200y back, 1:40.98) also won events on the final night of competition. 

Sandpipers of Nevada’s foursome of Grimes (50.10), Weinstein (49.18), Audrey Yu (49.81) and Sims (48.73) touched first in the women’s 400y free relay in 3:17.82, while the men’s race went to Lakeside Aquatic Club and Jon Vanzandt (45.09), Andew Zettle (43.77), Cooper Lucas (43.25) and Conor McKenna (43.93) in 2:56.04.

No new Juniors meet records fell in the East meet in Greensboro, but several swimmers picked up another win on the last night of racing. 

Cavalier Aquatics’ Thomas Heilman led the way with another National Age Group record, this time in the 13-14 200y fly. He swam a 1:42.77 to just out-touch Mason Manta Rays’ Carl Bloebaum, who finished in 1:42.95. 

SwimMAC Carolina’s Baylor Nelson won his third and fourth events of the meet with top swims in the men’s 200 back (1:41.89) and 200 breast (1:54.83). He also won the 200 and 400 IM earlier in the meet. 

New Jersey’s Anna Moesch swept the 50-, 100- and 200y free this weekend, clocking in at 47.90 tonight to take the win in the 100. YMCA of Cumberlands’ Daniel Diehl nearly pulled off the same trifecta, but ended up winning the men’s 100 and 200 free with a 43.37 in the 100 tonight. 

Carmel Swim Club’s Alex Shackell swept the women’s fly events with a 1:54.26 this evening, after she won the 100y fly yesterday, in addition to swimming legs on Carmel’s five winning relays. 

Sarasota Sharks swimmers swept the mile events, with Michaela Mattes (16:06.56) winning the women’s 1650y and teammate Liam Custer (15:07.41) taking home the men’s title. Fishers Area’s Jo Jo Ramey (200y back, 1:52.42) and SwimMAC Carolina’s Grace Rainey (200 breast, 2:10.23) were the other individual event winners tonight in Greensboro. 

Carmel Swim Club won all five of the women’s relays at the meet, claiming the final 400y free relay in 3:17.25 with Devon Kitchel (49.72), Berit Berglund (49.31), Gretchen Lueking (49.57) and Shackell (48.65) contributing legs. The Bolles School foursome of Miguel Rojas Newman (45.04), Andres Dupont Cabrera (43.02), Drew Salls (43.97) and Carter Lancaster (44.08) won the men’s relay in 2:56.11, just a hair off the meet record held by another Bolles squad featuring Caeleb Dressel, Santo Condorelli and Joseph Schooling. 

The next event on USA Swimming's national events calendar is the 2022 TYR Pro Swim Series Knoxville. To see the full list of events, visit www.usaswimming.org/events.