Déja Vu With A Twist In The USA Women’s 5K Champs
Ashley Twichell, Eva Fabian, Christian Jennings, Haley Anderson, Becca Mann, Emily Brunemann: the stars were out when the 2013 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships was held.
And so were the upstarts. At one point, Tristin Baxter sprinted into the lead going into the third and final loop in Castaic Lake.
It was like a heavyweight championship fight with each athlete getting in their own body blows. “Tristin moves into the lead…now Anderson has forged into the front…Fabian has a great line…Jennings is picking up where she left off in the 10K…Twichell is making a break for it…Fabian is making it a go with her…Brunemann has come up on their side…Becca Mann is on their tail…Haley is charging now…”
Back and forth, the athletes kept upping the ante and pushing the pace as they charged into the wind and came screaming downstream with the currents. Lead changes kept coming without stop. Lap 1, lap 2, lap 3. Without a doubt, it was anyone’s game. The pace was relentless and punishing as they fought each other and collectively against the elements.
On the last loop, the leaders kept taking body blows by the rest of the field. No one could pull away and no one was giving an inch.
But 6-time Olympic coach Jon Urbanchek predicted the winner as they came around the last turn buoy with 150 meters to go. “Haley was attacking. She was pissed [about the outcome of Friday’s 10 km race]. The whole way, she took it to the field.”
“The race was hard,” explained Becca Mann of Florida. “I was in a bad place and had to move around.”
As did everyone as they all chased Anderson over the last 150 meters when the recent USC graduate opened up an ever slight lead. “I felt strong going into the wind and gained confidence after the Olympics. I really got back into it during this race.”
And things look very good for the American team heading into the 2013 World Championships after two extremely hard-fought races among the top 8 athletes. “There is plenty of room for improvement,” said Coach Urbanchek who assists Dave Salo and Catherine Vogt who are Anderson’s coaches at Trojan Swim Club. “She is about 85% with everything going on during her senior year.”
And her post-graduate activities look to be very promising.
1 Haley Anderson (Trojan Swim Club-CA) 1:00:36.51
2 Becca Mann (Clearwater Aquatic Club-FL) 1:00:38.04
3 Emily Brunemann (Club Wolverine-MI) 1:00:38.38
4 Christine Jennings (RallySport Aquatics Club-CO) 1:00:40.14
5 Tristin Baxter (Clovis Swim Club-CC) 1:00:40.27
6 Eva Fabian (Greenwood Swimming-NE) 1:00:41.12
7 Ashley Twichell (Mission Viejo Nadadores-CA) 1:00:42.41
8 Lindsey Clary (FAST Swim Team-CA) 1:01:51.86
9 Brooke Lorentzen (Mission Viejo Nadadores-CA) 1:01:58.41
10 Megan Rankin (Unattached-CA) 1:02:09.83
11 Liliana Casso (Team Santa Monica-CA) 1:02:10.93
12 Regan Kology (Somerset Hills YMCA-NJ) 1:04:20.81
13 Amanda Richey (Boulder Swimming-CO) 1:04:21.81
14 Megan Viohl (Eagle Swim Team-MD) 1:04:37.20
15 Natalie Ward (Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics-AZ) 1:04:41.76
16 Gwen Walter (FAST Swim Team-CA) 1:05:31.46
17 Rachel Knowles (Pleasanton Seahawks-PC) 1:05:34.93
18 Raselle Chetwynd (Mission Viejo Nadadores-CA) 1:05:37.60
19 Ashlyn Butkowski (Unattached-NC) 1:05:41.24
20 Kaitlin Pawlowicz (Nation’s Capital Swim Club-PV) 1:06:02.82
21 Kathryn Babbin (Lake Erie Silver Dolphins-LE) 1:06:03.09
22 Brittney Beetcher (Boulder Swimming-CO) 1:06:23.94
23 Jamie Dodd (Team Santa Monica-CA) 1:06:25.01
24 Caitlin Daday (Parkland Aquatic Club-MA) 1:07:14.93
25 Jodi Turk (Lake Erie Silver Dolphins-LE) 1:07:33.97
26 Courtney Sheehan (Fresno State Bulldog Swimming-CC) 1:07:36.28
27 Sydney Franzen (Mission Viejo Nadadores-CA) 1:07:38.59
28 Nicole Antoniuk (Unattached-CA) 1:08:04.25
29 Mandy Barnes (Mission Viejo Nadadores-CA) 1:09:13.22
30 Kendal Guy (Mission Viejo Nadadores-CA) 1:09:23.52
31 Sarah Gibson (Alamo Area Aquatics-ST) 1:09:31.33
32 Hannah Vester (Tribe Aquatics-VA) 1:09:36.59
33 Megan Pierce (Shawmut Aquatic Club-NE) 1:09:38.30
34 Isabel Whited (Unattached-AZ) 1:10:11.29
35 Abbey Erwin (Boise YMCA Swim Team-SR) 1:10:16.94
36 Maia Brundage (Scottsdale Aquatic Club-AZ) 1:10:19.82
Copyright © 2013 by Open Water Swimming
