By Ryan Kirton on SwimSwam
NCS LC Age Group Championships
July 17-20, 2025 LCM (50m) Prelims/Finals (13-14), Timed Finals (12&U) Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC Meet Packet Results13-year-old Finola Whelehan swam eleven events at the North Carolina Swimming Age Group Champs in Greensboro, winning seven, and finishing runner up in two more. The young phenom out of Triangle Aquatic Club used the opportunity to get out any last minute jitters, before returning to the Greensboro Aquatic Club for Futures Championships a few days later.
Whelehan kicked off the meet as the lead-off leg in the 800 freestyle relay, where she went a blistering 2:02.48, over a second faster than her previous best of 2:03.79. Her new personal best was not only enough to will the TAC Titans to an opening relay victory, but it moved her into the all-time top 40 for 13-14 year-olds in that event. She nearly matched this split in the individual event the following day, and her 2:02.55 gave her an almost four second win, en route to starting out the meet with two wins in two events.
While the rest of night two didn’t go as swimmingly for Whelehan — seeing back-to-back disqualifications in the 100 fly and 400 IM — her final swim of the night was the most exciting. Entering the final leg of the 400 free relay nearly a second and a half out of first, Whelehan rallied back with a split of 56.44, inching ahead of rival club SwimMAC by .01. The split is the fastest of her career, and gave her three wins in her first five events.
Whelehan would go on to win two more events in each of the last two days: the 100 back (1:04.47) and 400 free (4:30.18) on Saturday, and the 100 free (56.75) and 200 IM (2:19.61) on Sunday. Most notably, her 56.75 in the 100 free nearly matched her own 400 free relay split, and moved her to 36th in the all-time standings for 13-14 year-olds.
Despite her dominance all weekend, the two early disqualifications put Whelehan out of the race for the individual high point winner. That distinction went to 14-year-old Elise Berl out of SwimMAC, who won the 200 back (2:18.45), 400 IM (5:02.84), and the 800 (9:19.31) and 1500 (17:56.53) freestyles, comfortably winning the latter two by over five seconds. Berl’s contribution propelled North Carolina’s most well known club to an easy victory in the combined team results, scoring 400 more points than the 2nd place TAC Titans.
Still, the 2nd place finish in the high point race didn’t seem to discourage Whelehan for the main event the following week. At Futures Championships in Greensboro, she had three top 10 finishes, including a third place finish in the 200 free. Her new personal best of 2:02.08 put her in 7th across all Futures in that event, and moved her to 27th all time in the 13-14 age group standings.
Other Highlights
11-year-old Penelope Chao out of North Carolina Aquatics cruised to victory in six events during the timed final portion of the meet: The 400 free (4:39.98), 100 back (1:08.54), 200 back (2:25.75), 100 breast (1:17.35), 200 breast (2:47.28), and 400 IM (5:13.73). Not only were all of these times significant drops, but she was able to win each event comfortably, including besting her previous 400 IM time of 5:24.83 en route to winning the event by nearly 12 seconds. Chao’s teammate, 12-year-old Eleanor Roberts, swept the sprint freestyle events, the 50 free (28.08), 100 free (1:01.52), and 200 free (2:15.58), and tacked on a fourth win in the 50 breast (36.36). Like Chao, all of these times were drops, though while she won the 200 free by a second and a half, she dug deep to win her other three events by less than a quarter of a second. Steven Zhou-He was one of the three 13-14 year old boys to win three events this weekend, taking the 200 IM (2:12.76), 400 IM (4:47.52), and 100 fly (58.97). He won all three races by less than a second, though none were closer than the 100 fly, where he tied for first with Bryce Zoe Dadulla, who also won the 50 (24.83) and 100 free (53.68). Blake Zimmermann also reached the three-win mark, sweeping the distance freestyle events: the 400 (4:17.57), 800 (8:47.72), and 1500 (16:48.66). In the 400, he made up a slim deficit in the final 50 to rally back and win the event by .15 seconds.Read the full story on SwimSwam: Finola Whelehan Cruises to Seven Event Wins at North Carolina Swimming’s Age Group Champs
Hence then, the article about finola whelehan cruises to seven event wins at north carolina swimming s age group champs was published today ( ) and is available on swimswam ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Finola Whelehan Cruises to Seven Event Wins at North Carolina Swimming’s Age Group Champs )
Also on site :