2018 Speedo Junior National Championships (US)
- July 31st-August 4th
- Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine, California
- Psych Sheets
The fun isn’t over in Irvine. After last week’s US National Championships, which saw World Records, U.S. Open Records, and age group records of all kinds, this week, the (rest of the) juniors will take to the pool in Irvine for Junior Nationals.
Many of the biggest under-18 names from the senior version are scheduled to compete again at Juniors (though, we expect that several entered won’t wind up sticking around for week 2).
Among the names to watch are 18-year old Lucie Nordmann from the Magnolia Aquatic Club in suburban Houston, and her younger sister Lillie Nordmann.
Lillie, who finished 11th overall in the 200 fly at senior Nationals, will technically be the 3rd seed in that same event at Juniors – but her 2:10.30 from last week would put her almost two seconds clear of the field. She’s also the top seed in the 100 fly (59.63), which is her other ‘best event.’
Lucie, meanwhile, holds top-3 seeds in all 6 of her entries. That includes the #1 seed in the 100 free (55.15), and the 2nd s eed in the 200 back behind another teenage phenom Isabelle Stadden, who came within a tie-breaker of making the Pan Pacs team this week.
Also scheduled to swim at the meet this week:
- Carson Foster, who twice broke the National Age Group Record in the 200 IM last week.
- Alexei Sancov and Andrei Minakov, a pair of Europeans training with the Terrapins Swim Team
- 14-year old Claire Tuggle, who made the B-Final in the 200 free at Nationals
- Gianluca Urlando, who was the first-swimmer out of the Pan Pacs team, is scheduled to race, but his coach Billy Doughty has confirmed that he will instead begin training for Jr. Pan Pacs instead.
Isabelle Stadden, not Isabella. The photo caption is wrong.
I think Stadden had a bad start in the 100 back prelims last week. She was a body length behind most of her heat after the breakout.
I don’t think it was her start. Her underwaters need work. She has improved a lot in them in just a year or so, but it was only three years ago that she was a 58 in 100 yard backstroke and didn’t streamline past the backstroke flags. Her underwaters look bad compared to other elite athletes because she is relatively new on the elite stage and hasn’t put in the time that others have to really work on them. Give her a couple of years (I’m thinking 2020) to improve them, and we might see a totally different result.
Women’s fly is an area that could use a youth boost beyond Tokyo. There’s some great juniors there albeit weighted toward the younger age groups. 14 y/o Charlotte Hook went 2:11.09 in the 200 fly on Wednesday. She isn’t competing again this week. But in the 100 fly there are three more 14 year olds right on a minute, the reverse alliterative law firm of Kozan, Curzan, and Gillilan.
The sprint fly will mostly be developed at the college level. Lots of potential already for the 2fly. The 2fly can be a hard event to nail on taper so won’t be surprised to see some misses this week.
I’m always so surprised by the number of swimmers that double up on senior nats/US open and Juniors. It’s a really intense financial burden for families to put their kids (and themselves as parents) up in hotels or Airbnb’s in addition to meals for an additional week.
Some teams pay a portion of the cost for high level meets like Jrs/Srs
What LSC? Most max out at $700 which doesn’t cover much?
Yeah, I’ve only seen a few hundred dollars and sometimes (maybe not anymore) with that stipulation that they have to compete at two competitions hosted by that LSC in recent months, which if you’re not in a strong LSC, coaches might want their elite swimmers to skip.
I agree, my swimmer qualified, but to go across the country was a financial decision and the $500 from the LSc for travel would not even cover a plane ticket. A parent needs to be reasonable in these situations. Also USA swimming could have an east coast and west coast juniors instead of having families cross the US. I am proud of my swimmer for understanding this fact and knows there will another chance when it would not cost a down payment for a car 🙂
A lot of swimmers are pretty wealthy
a lot aren’t as well
Any entered junior swimmers who made Fiji should clearly now skip this and train for Fiji.
Sounds like that’s what many are doing. Confirmed that Urlando won’t be swimming.
That meet has not much interest for the best US junior swimmers as it doesn’t serve as the selection meet for junior pan pacs. And it’s too bad. I’d like to see the best US juniors swim against each other to make the team. Now I don’t see the interest for the juniors who go to Fiji of swimming again this week in the same pool. They should go back to training and not race too much before the big meet.
Some swimmers at this meet may be opting out of Junior Pan Pacs due to school.
they will be replaced and it will still be a full team so his point still has merit
Well it’s an opportunity for others. I just wish the scheduling of the meet worked out better so that all the eligible kids and families didn’t have that conflict.
IMO the concept of best is remarkable at the absolute level.
Before, in the age categories, there are (and always there will be) a lot of differencies and (thus) targets, with the “best” juniors already racing at the absolute level.
Every young swimmer has its specific growth and, obviously, in the future may happens that the strongest swimmers at 16 won’t be the strongest at 25.
What matters is the mid-long term, not being the fastest in some teen category.
Good update on Tuggle’s photo.
Sancov is Moldovan isn’t he? Or at least he was when he competed at European juniors in 2017.
Correct. Sancov is Moldovan and Minakov is Russian.
I don’t represent Moldova anymore..