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USA Juniors Take Pan Pacs By Storm

Aug 27, 2012

The seniors trounced all-comers at London 2012 and now the USA junior team has topped the table at the Junior Pan Pacs pool meet in Honolulu, with four gold, three silver and four bronze on the last day taking the triumphant tally to 43 medals in all, 19 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze.

The USA led on points, its 449.5 points ahead of Australia's 318.5, Japan third with 317. The young Americans finished off their campaign with two more meet marks, best man Chase Kalisz on 1:59.51 in the 200m medley, Becca Mann on 16:11.98 in the 1500m freestyle. 

Winner of the backstroke double, Jack Conger added the 50m freestyle crown in 22.69, while Olivia Smoliga, Annie Zhu, Katie Kinnear and Simone Manuel won the 4x100m medley in 4:03.93.

Americans lost more than they won on the last day, however, with Canada, Australia and Japan taking a brace each. Kiera Smith led a Canadian 1-2 in the 200m breaststroke, a 2:25.78 meet mark keeping teammate Mariya Chekanovich at bay by a touch, silver earned in 2:25.96. They had watched teammate ErikaSeltenreich-Hodgson take a commanding win in the 200m medley, on 2:12.93.

For Australia, Alexandra Purcell took the freestyle dash in 25.15, while  Matthew Levings set a meet mark of 7:56.94 in the 800m freestyle ahead of the other sub-8min effort in the final, a 7:59.69 courtesy of William Brothers, of Canada.

Japan finished its meet with victories for Akihiro Yamaguchi, on a meet mark of 2:08.03 in the 200m breaststroke (29.60; 1:02.44 -32.84; 1:35.77 - 33.33; 2:08.03 - 32.26) before he helped another meet mark bit the dust, a 3:37.67 total from a team stacked with Olympic experience - Takeshi Kawamoto (55.35), Yamaguchi (59.55), Daiya Seto (53.21) and Kenta Hirai (49.56) - bringing the meet to a quality close.