For much of the six-lap, 10-kilometer opening race at this year’s 2014 U.S. Open Water Nationals, the nation’s top women distance swimmers remained bunched in a group, with no swimmer desiring to break free until they could be sure they could leave their competitors behind.
It was Becca Mann of North Baltimore Aquatic Club who did so first with 300 meters left in the race to win Friday morning at Castaic Lake in Santa Clarita, Calif.
The 16 year old never led, content instead to simply be in the lead pack for the first three quarters of the race. And it was in the final stretch that Mann began to push the pace against a veteran field.
Mann, an accomplished open water swimmer despite her age, was fearless in asserting herself in the homestretch against a field that included 10K Olympic silver medalist Haley Anderson and 25K world champion bronze medalist Eva Fabian.
“I wanted to stay with the lead pack, obviously, for the first four or five laps and then see if I had enough energy to break out and try to get ahead,” Mann said. “As long as I can keep up with the pack for the first four laps – that’s usually the hardest for me – then I can use my pool speed to get up to the front.”
Mann seemed to get stronger with every stroke in the final 75 meters and held a two body-length lead as she entered the chute at the race’s finish. Fabian and Anderson touched second and third. Fourth was Christine Jennings, who finished sixth in the 25K and 10th in the 10K at least year’s world championships.
The four were the first to qualify for USA Swimming’s delegation to the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Queensland, Australia in August. The finish also qualifies them to represent the U.S. in Kazan, Russia at next year’s FINA world championships. The rest of the open water women’s team will be selected on Sunday based on finishes in the 5K event.
Nation’s Capital‘s Isabella Rongione, a first team All-Met as a freshman at Langley, placed seventh overall. Rongione was the second fastest 18 and under finisher, behind Mann, which qualifies the 14-year-old for the open water events at the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 27.
NCAP’s Megan Brynes, 15, a two-time All-Met, just missed making the junior team as well. Byrnes will be a junior at Oakton.
Kaitlin Pawlowicz, a rising senior at Texas and former All-Met Swimmer of the Year, finished 14th overall.
Megan Rankin, a UCLS transfer now training in Gainesville at Florida, led for much of he race. Alongside her at the front was Ashley Twichell, followed by the pack of Fabian, Anderson, Jennings and Mann.
Andrew Gemmell wins men’s 10K
NCAP’s Andrew Gemmell, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, touched first in the men’s 10-kilometer event to claim the national championship title and earn his place on the 2014 Pan Pacs and 2015 World Championships team.
Gemmell’s finished a body length ahead of rising junior Jordan Wilimovsky of Northwestern, his roommate in Barcelona at last summer’s Worlds, who placed second.
“I just did a lot of little things right. It adds up over 7 or 8 [kilometters],” Gemmell said. “I just put my head down and went from there.”
Sean Ryan and Alex Meyers finished third and fourth to claim the other two spots on the Pan Pacs and Worlds team.
Gemmell, a silver medalist in the 10K at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, and Wilimovsky held a 30-meter lead over the rest of the field at the final turn. That’s when Gemmell increased his stroke rate and pulled loose from Wilimovsky to take the race.
