Next week’s National Club Swimming Association junior national championships will feature some of the top 18-and-under swimmers in the United States at the YMCA International Aquatic Center in Orlando, and SwimmingWorld.TV will be a part of the live webcast beginning Tuesday afternoon.
The meet will feature prelims in short course yards and finals in long course meters. The last time the meet was held in this format was in 2012 in order to give athletes an opportunity to earn Olympic Trials qualifying times.
The meet will be highlighted by a few members of the USA Swimming national junior team, many of whom are on the cusp of landing on the national team. Andrew Seliskar of Nation’s Capital Swim Club is one of them, and will be looking to extend the outstanding month he is having in the pool. Seliskar became one of the top swimmers in history at the Potomac Valley championships in the 400 IM and 200 breaststroke, and is entered in those two events and nine others.
NOVA of Virginia’s Townley Haas and NCAP’s Matthew Hirschberger will be the class of the field in the distance freestyle events. Last year, Haas attempted to win all the freestyle events at the NCSA juniors, but fell short of that goal. Hirschberger will be Haas’ major obstacle toward that goal, while James Jones of Nation’s Capital could be one of his challengers in the sprint freestyles.
Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer and Shanda Crowe/ProSwimVisuals.com
Last year, Simone Manuel and Janet Hu shared the spotlight at last year’s meet. With both now in college, look for Cassidy Bayer of Nation’s Capital to be the major star. Bayer is now 15 years old and will have the spotlight on her in the butterfly events. In 2013, she broke Mary T. Meagher’s 13-14 national age group record in the 200 butterfly and nearly broke her own record at last year’s events. Will she go for Mary T.’s 15-16 record of 1:52.99 next week in prelims before racing for the win in the long course finals?
Expect some fresh faces at the top of the medal podium in many of the women’s events, including the sprint freestyles and breaststrokes. Look for Ozaukee Aquatics’ Katie Drabot to be the class of the field in the IM events, and she could also take the gold medal in the 100 and 200 freestyles.
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Click here for the live webcast of the meet, as well as on-demand race videos throughout the week!
NCSA Junior Nationals Order of Events
Short course yards prelims at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, long course finals at 6 p.m. Eastern time
Tuesday timed finals at 4 p.m.
Women 1650 Freestyle
Men 1000 Freestyle
Women 200 free relay
Men 200 free relay
Women 200 medley relay
Men 200 medley relay
Wednesday
Women 200 Backstroke
Men 200 Backstroke
Women 100 Freestyle
Men 500 Freestyle
Women 100 Breaststroke
Men 100 Breaststroke
Women 200 Butterfly
Men 200 Butterfly
Women 800 free relay (swum as timed finals in morning session)
Thursday
Women 200 Freestyle
Men 200 Freestyle
Women 50 Breaststroke
Men 50 Breaststroke
Women 400 IM
Men 400 IM
Women 50 Butterfly
Men 50 Butterfly
400 free relay (swum as timed finals in morning session)
Friday
Women 100 Backstroke
Men 100 Backstroke
Women 500 Freestyle
Men 100 Freestyle
Women 200 Breaststroke
Men 200 Breaststroke
Women 100 Butterfly
Men 100 Butterfly
Men 800 free relay (swum as timed finals in morning session)
Saturday
Women 50 Backstroke
Men 50 Backstroke
Women 200 IM
Men 200 IM
Women 50 Freestyle
Men 50 Freestyle
Women and men 400 medley relay (swum as timed finals in morning session)
Women 800M Freestyle (long course)
Men 1500MFreestyle (long course)
Can’t forget about Stanzi Moseley, top seed in 50/100/200 Freestyle.