DES MOINES SECTIONALS
- March 11-14, 2021
- Des Moines, IA (Wellmark YMCA)
- Short course yards (SCY) with SCY/LCM time trials
- Meet info
- Psych sheets
The Central Zone Sectional Series kicks off tomorrow, with one site in Des Moines, Iowa (the other is in Fargo, N.D., in two weeks’ time). To limit the potential spread of COVID-19, the meet is capped to 300 swimmers total, with a limit of 138 swimmers per session/flight. Further, there will be two different prelims sessions, with half of the clubs to race in one and half in the other.
Top clubs include Iowa teams like the Iowa Flyers and Ames Cyclones (along with the host team, Des Moines YMCA), as well as clubs from nearby LSCs, like the Academy Bullets and Fox Valley Swim Team out of Illinois and Aquastorm out of North Dakota.
A bunch of swimmers who recently competed at the Iowa LSC Senior Champs will be racing again here, including Stanford commit Aurora Roghair, Georgia commit Heidi Stalkfleet and Florida commit Scarlet Martin of the Iowa Flyers, NC State commit Meghan Donald of the Ames Cyclones.
Justin Winnett, swimming unattached, is the top seed in the 50 free and 100 breast. Winnett was a Division II standout at Lindenwood University. The other top swimmers on the men’s side are Indiana commit Drew Reiter, swimming unattached, and 15-year-old breaststroke specialist Josh Chen of the Ames Cyclones.
Aquastorm will have sprinter and Arizona commit Lexi Duchsherer as the top seed in the 50 free, alongside sisters Carly and Erin Palmer.
Meanwhile, a couple of University of Iowa women are racing this weekend, including backstroker Kennedy Gilbertson and Zoe Pawloski.
At least this Sectional meet in Iowa is allowing swimmers over 18. This is more inclusive. The sectional meet in Jenks (Section 8) didn’t allow anyone over 18 or over high school age to enter their meet. This essentially makes the sectional meet in Jenks an 18/under Sectional meet. It doesn’t seem fair to swimmers who just graduated last year. It’s too bad Jenks was not able to come up with other options to make their meet more inclusive.