By Payton Titus, Swimming World College Intern
The Futures Championships in Richmond, Virginia begin Thursday, August 2 and the psych sheets introduce a lot of youngsters into this realm of competition.
Click here to view the entire psych sheet.
14-year-old Joy Jiang is seeded 1st in the women’s 100 LCM fly (1:01.64) and third in the 200 LCM fly (2:17.70). Jiang, a swimmer from New York Sharks Aquatics, Inc. in Harriman, New York, is ranked in the top 10 for three of her five individual events. Anna Phelps, the 13-year-old from Plymouth Whitemarsh Aquatics joins Jiang in the top eight in the latter event, seeded sixth with a time of 2:18.29. Keeping her fellow up-and-comers some company is Jill Berger of Sea Devil Swimming in Virginia. The 14-year-old’s 100 LCM fly time (1:03.09) has her ranked seventh overall. Berger’s 400 LCM free time (4:24.43) and her 200 LCM free time (2:04.85) have her seeded fifth in both events.
Also 14 years of age are Sophia Karras, Natalie Mannion, Aiken Do, Sydney Debaecke and Sophie Duncan. Karras, distance freestyler from Long Island Aquatic Club, is going into the week with a ninth place seed in the 800 LCM free (9:11.26) and a fourth place seed in the 1500 LCM free (17:24.41). Mannion, also bringing in two top-10 seed times, represents Commonwealth Swimming as the sixth ranked 200 freestyler (2:05.12) and the 3rd place 100 backstroker (1:04.20) attending this meet. Virginia resident, Do currently sits as seventh in the 100 LCM breaststroke, with a time of 1:06.19. Debaecke, another backstroke swimmer, is seeded fourth in the 200, with a time of 2:18.57 out of Delaware. Duncan, joining teammate Berger to represent Sea Devil Swimming, is the sixth seed in the 200 LCM individual medley (2:22.63).
Although not as much of a “youngster” as the swimmers listed above, 18-year-old Louisiana State University (LSU) comitt, Alexandra McDaid from Peddie Aquatic Association in New Jersey, specializes in breaststroke events. McDaid’s times in both the 100 LCM breast (1:12.24) and the 200 LCM breast (2:35.90), place her as the top seed in both races.
In terms of relays, the Dayton Raiders out of Ohio are projected to finish highly on both the women’s and men’s side of the competition. They are seeded third in the women’s 800 LCM free relay (8:30.09), second in the women’s 400 LCM free relay (3:57.14), first in the men’s 400 LCM free relay (3:25.84), and second and first in the women’s and men’s 400 LCM medley relays, respectively.
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