Amanda Nunan of Ocean City finished third in the 800-meter freestyle at Junior Nationals. She shows off one of her prizes from the competition.
Ocean City High School sophomore Amanda Nunan is back from Irvine, Calif., after taking a third place and a fifth place against the best 18-and-under swimmers in the nation at the 2014 Junior National Championships.
Nunan dropped 12 seconds from her seed time to finish third of 78 swimmers in the 800-meter freestyle in 8:42.84.
She improved her personal best by 16 seconds in the 1,500-meter freestyle to take fifth of 64 in 16:36.77.
Nunan also competed in the 200-meter (67th place in 2:05.43) and 400-meter (14th in 4:16.43) freestyle events.
The meet was held at the long-course (50-meter) pool at the William Woolett Jr. Aquatics Complex in Irvine.
The qualifying times for the 2016 Olympic Trials will not be released until September 2014, but Nunan's times were under the 2012 Olympic Trial cutoffs in the 400 (4:19.39) and 800 (8:50.49). Women do not compete in the 1,500-meter freestyle in the Olympics.
Nunan, just age 15, said Monday that reaching Olympic Trials and even competing in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 are part of her goals and dreams.
She said she had been training hard this summer and felt good in warm-ups. But she didn't know how well she was doing until she saw her coach, Brian Elko, on the side of the pool with his hands up in the air — a signal throughout the race that she was on pace to meet her goal.
Nunan trains with the Egg Harbor Township Seahawks club team, and when she stepped to the podium during the awards ceremony, the small New Jersey community was mentioned along with legendary swimming clubs from North Baltimore, Florida, Texas and California.
As a freshman this winter, Nunan became Ocean City High School’s first individual state champion in girls’ swimming by winning the 500-yard freestyle in 4:51.93. She also took second in a close 200-yard freestyle race. She helped a deep Ocean City team reach the state championship meet in Public B team competition.
Nunan is finished competing in the pool for the summer. She is signed up for the Cedar Island 5-kilometer event in Avalon later this month, and she usually competes in Atlantic City's Pageant Swim (scheduled for Aug. 30 this year).
