Five Storylines To Watch At The 2024 Winter Junior Championships – East

2024 Winter Juniors Championships – East

• December 11-14, 2024
• Greensboro, NC
• SCY (25 yards)
• Psych Sheets

While most of the Winter Championships this month have disappointing fields, the Juniors are showing up in force for the Winter Junior Championships this week in Greensboro and Austin. These meets, which are always fast, will bring us the positive headlines that have generally been lacking from the U.S. Open and Short Course Worlds.

There are a bunch of high level performers at the East meet in Greensboro, including Olympian Thomas Heilman, and a number of them have a history of swimming their season-best times at this meet.

Below are five storylines we’re watching for the East meet in Greensboro.

Thomas Heilman All Wound Up

The young Heilman only went one best time over the summer in long course, swimming 50.80 in the 100-meter fly. But he’s already coming out firing in short course with a best time in the 200 yard fly a month ago.

Heilman has always gone best times at this meet. In 2022, he went best times in six different events, including a 3.86 second drop in the 100 fly and a 7.10 second drop in the 200 fly. In 2023, he went best times in five different events, including dropping more than a second in the 100 fly and four-and-a-half in the 200 IM.

He doesn’t have four seconds to drop in any of his primary events, but history indicates a few National Age Group Records could be going down.

Audrey Derivaux Chasing National Age Group Records

Audrey Derivaux of the Jersey Wahoos is now 15, which means a new set of National Age Group Records to chase. She swam 1:53.93 in the 200 fly at a Thanksgiving meet three weeks ago, with the record being a 1:51.24 belonging to Regan Smith from 2018.

But I’m equally excited to see what she does in a few events that she doesn’t swim as often, like the 500 free and the 100 fly. Her best time in the 100 fly, specifically, is a 53.35 from this meet last year, and she has only swum this event in yards once in the interim.

She knocked two seconds off in long course in that same time period.

She has a few big-time matchups with Carmel swimmers like Lynsey Bowen (seeded at 4:39.51) in the 500 free and Molly Sweeney (seeded at 1:54.58) in the 200 IM, a pair of swimmers who are poised to move into the national consciousness with big swims on this big stage.

Girls’ 100 Breaststroke

The girls’ 100 breaststroke is loaded, with four swimmers seeded better than 59.5 led by SwimMAC Carolina’s Elle Scott (58.94).

The top six seeds in the race

1. Elle Scott, SwimMAC – 58.94 (Cal 2025)
2. Addie Robillard, Mason Manta Rays – 59.33 (Stanford 2025)
3. Eliza Wallace, Mecklenburg Swim Team – 59.36 (Tennessee 2026)
4. Molly Sweeney, Carmel Swim Club – 59.47 (Tennessee 2026)
5. Sophia Umstead, Michigan Lakeshore – 1:00.22 (Virginia 2025)
6. Avery Klamfoth, SwimMAC Carolina – 1:00.43 (Texas 2026)
7. Karina Plaza, SwimMAC Carolina – 1:00.67 (Only 14)

The top six seeds are all veterans, each 17 and three of them headed to college next season.

The 7th seed Karina Plaza is only .65 seconds from the 13-14 National Age Group Record and a clear anomaly in an otherwise-veteran field. She is, in fact, the only 14-year-old entered in the meet with a short course yards qualifying standard in the 100 breaststroke.

American women’s sprint breaststroking is in a period of turnover where we’re probably going to see some new faces rise to the top, and this group makes up a big chunk of the contenders.

Norvin Clontz

Like Heilman, Clontz is another swimmer who seems to hit his taper at Winter Juniors every season. At last year’s Winter Juniors meet, he swam best times of 1:37.20 in the 200 free, 1:56.63 in the 200 breast, and 1:47.67 in the 200 fly.

A middle-distance specialist, this year he’s entered in the 200 free, 500 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, and 400 IM, which is basically the same lineup as he had last year. Last year, he dropped the 400 IM, but there are a lot of signs pointing to the potential for him to have a big 400 IM in him.

Rylee Erisman vs. Charlotte Crush in the 100 Free

Rylee Erisman and Charlotte Crush are, in many ways, the future of American women’s sprinting, and they’ll have a big showdown in the 100 free. Erisman, who has already completed her high school season in Florida, went a best time of 47.14 in November. Crush swam 48.90 in October but posted her best time at this meet last year in 47.86.

The two have a few other overlapping entries – the 100 fly and the 100 back – where Crush is the top seed but Erisman hasn’t raced at a taper meet since the spring.

I think one of the stories of this meet is going to be the battle between these two. It’s a deep meet and there are a lot of good swimmers in their events (like the 3rd seed in the 100 back, 14-year-old Reina Liu), but I think the matchups between Erisman and Crush will be among the big highlights when the dust settles.