Bold takeaway: Even at big meets, standout performances can fly under the radar—until you dig a little deeper and spot them shaping the future of the sport.
The 2025 Speedo Winter Juniors – West Championships closed with a flurry of blazing swims over four days, yet several remarkable efforts didn’t steal the show in the live recaps. Here’s a closer look at those performances worth recognizing, while noting that this list isn’t exhaustive.
Evan Gluck elevated his strong 1000 and 500 free showings by blasting a 14:55.27 in the mile, finishing fourth. That marks a 14-second personal best improvement, pushing his bests to 4:23.5/8:56/14:55. He leaves the meet with new bests across the board (4:23.5/8:56/14:55), improving from 4:28.0/9:05/15:09 entering, and he was one of four men to go sub-15 minutes on the night. He trailed Whitaker Steward by less than a second for third.
Ellis Crisci, the 1000 free champion and a 500 free finalist, moved up to second with a 14:53.10 after cutting 19 seconds.
Rowyn Wilby shaved a half-second off her morning 200 back, qualifying fifth into the final at 1:56.82, and then dropped another 1.5 seconds in the final to place higher at 1:55.38. Entering the meet as the 13th seed, this two-second drop elevates her into the top 100 in the 15–16 girls category.
Benjamin Jaggers reduced his 200 back time by three seconds during the day, climbing from 32nd into the boys’ B final with a 1:45.88. He captured the B final victory in 1:44.65 and has shaved substantial time off both the 200 back and the 100 back—where he was the overall winner in 46.18 on Night 4. Jaggers, a Waterloo swimmer, helped set a Meet Record-breaking relay on Night 1 and had previously gone 1:44.79 back in March this year.
Avery Daigle won the girls’ 100 free B final in 48.92, trimming 0.88 seconds off her best from the day. Her heats time of 49.65 in the 50 free places her 64th all-time among 15–16-year-olds, with a year still to go. That ‘B’ final time would have earned 5th in the A final.
Cade Vieler of Livermore Aquatic Club dropped dramatically, moving from 45.53 to 43.75 to take 2nd in the boys’ B final, cutting 1.78 seconds off his best yesterday. Brody Englestad also posted a strong 7th-place finish in the A final with a 43.48 after a 44.75 morning swim.
Max Laine of Waterloo Swimming posted the most dramatic improvement of the day in the boys’ 200 breast, dropping over four seconds to win the B final with a 1:56.70 after a 1:58.73 morning swim. That time would have placed him 3rd in the A final, just 0.16 seconds behind Tyler Bardak, who himself cut 1.6 seconds.
Aidan Villars entered the 200 fly with 1:49.01 but moved to 3rd in the B final with a near three-second drop to 1:46.27. The big storyline in this event was Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club’s Charlie Cancelmo. The 16-year-old lowered his seed dramatically, going from 1:45.03 to 1:42.51 to qualify 1st into the final, then lowering again to 1:42.23 for 2nd in the final.
Cancelmo now sits 5th all-time in the 15–16 age group and is 0.16 seconds faster than the current 200 fly World Short Course champion Ilya Kharun was at the same age. The four swimmers ahead of Cancelmo—Thomas Heilman, Luca Urlando, Aiden Hayes, and Michael Phelps—underscore the extraordinary company he’s now keeping.
In This Story
- Aiden Hayes
- Ilya Kharun
- Luca Urlando
- Michael Phelps
- Thomas Heilman
