Psych Sheets for 2019 Winter Juniors – East Championships

2019 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – East

After this weekend’s long course U.S. Open Championships in Atlanta, the pool will now shift to short course yards for the Winter Junior Championships – East. One of two Winter Junior Championship meets that split the country along the Mississippi River (and lake Michigan), the event is the foil to the West championships at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington.

Athletes must be aged 18 or younger on the first day of the meet to compete.

Among the big names to keep an eye on will be TAC Titans 15-year old Claire Curzan. She was forced to pull out of last week’s U.S. Open while dealing with some health issues, but is planning to be good-to-go this week at Juniors. She has 6 entries for the meet, the 50 free, 100 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, 100 back, and 200 back, and she is the top seed in all of them.

Curzan holds 7 National Age Group Records in yards, but is now aged up into the 15-16 group and has a new set of standards to chase. That shouldn’t be too intimidating for her, given that her best time in the 100 yard fly as a 13-14 (50.64) is already faster than the 15-16 record of 51.08 held by Beata Nelson.

On the boys’ side of the pool, the biggest name in attendance will be high school senior Carson Foster of the Mason Manta Rays. A University of Texas commit, Foster took 2nd in the 200 meter IM and the 400 meter IM at the U.S. Open, including breaking a Meet Record in the 200 IM prelims.

He’s scheduled to swim a 6 event schedule at Winter Juniors. Some of those events are his standard lineup, the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 free, 200 back, and 200 fly. Among those, the most exciting race should be with Stanford commit Preston Forst, the top seed in the race.

Foster will also swim an event that he doesn’t usually race at big national meets – the 500 free. In fact, he had to use the Bonus Standard to even qualify to swim the race in this meet, and is seeded just 51st – not a familiar spot for him these days.

But his 4:33.47 seed time there is simply his most recent time. At last year’s Ohio High School State Championship meet, he swam 4:20.21 in the event, which would make him the 3rd seed. He’l still be chasing the likes of Jake Magahey of SwimAtlanta (4:14.61) and Jake Mitchell of Carmel (4:16.72) in that race. That trio will have a number of battles at the meet.

The racing begins with a relay-and-distance day on Wednesday evening before jumping into a full day of competition for Thursday – Sunday. Prelims of the meet will be split into 2 pools (a boys pool and a girls pool), which means that the prelims sessions will actually be fairly brief – in some cases shorter than finals.

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Coach Mike 1952
4 years ago

What’s up with her arm in the photo? Looks bruised or something…

Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

In other news, Russia was just banned from the Olympics.

Speed Racer
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

They have time to appeal the ruling and athletes can compete under a neutral flag. Means very little.

Xman
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

Everything including the world cup for 2022

Johnny
4 years ago

for those swimmers attending both the US Open and Junior Nats, how do they pull off missing 2 weeks of school? How do their parents afford missing 2 weeks of work? The financial hit of staying in a hotel for 2 weeks, meals, airfare? As a parent, I know I couldn’t miss this much work and afford this.

Swimmomtoo
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

Ask the coaches!!!

Anonymous
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

I couldn’t do it, but concerned about end of semester exams for so many. That’s probably why our old coach that brings a number of swimmers to both meets encourages kids to homeschool or attend private schools that are friendlier to the athletes, such as electronic assignments and proctored testing. There’s a reason why that’s a former team.

Barney
Reply to  Anonymous
4 years ago

Wow @anonymous a little judgmental. Just because it didn’t work for you doesn’t make it wrong. Parents don’t have to go, so that save missing their work and some of the cost. Many of these kids are excellent students and can keep up just fine (maybe an indictment of our school system, but that’s for another time). There are plenty of ways to keep costs down if you plan in advance, do a little fundraising, and don’t insist of the best accommodations. It’s not easy, but keys just say YES it can work for some people some of the time.

Swimmomtoo
Reply to  Barney
4 years ago

Many of the hs kids in our club (who went to the US open) are NOT excellent students, period. It does not make sense for them to go to both meets (only doing a couple events at US open), and missing many days of school. It was exciting to “compete” with some of the greatest swimmers, but such excitement is overrated.
The coaches who decided to let these young kids go both are not putting the best interests of the students at heart.

The Man Himself
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

Many parents most likely don’t go to both meets, if any at all . With current technology (livestreams, meet mobile, etc.) this is a lot more viable than missing 2 weeks of work. Also, in terms of money, many clubs and LSCs pay for a significant portion of national level trips, with some of the bigger clubs even paying for all.

swimmom
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

For anyone saying the parents don’t have to go, how exactly do you send a 15-17yr old if you don’t have the luxury of team travel?? And if your team/LSC pays for your trip, you are incredibly lucky, because ours sure does not!

John
Reply to  swimmom
4 years ago

Fo-travel with a closer club if possible. Obviously not every single athlete can team travel though but those people are usually well aware and can budget ahead when possible

Jay Simms
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

Think about the officials. They also have to take off f work, pay for hotel/airfare and 99% don’t even have someone swimming

swimguy4910
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

Foster’s are home schooled

Chris
Reply to  swimguy4910
4 years ago

No they aren’t

Amos
Reply to  swimguy4910
4 years ago

Fosters are not nor have ever been home schooled. They transferred from St X to Sycamore , public btw. Carson has graduated early and is no longer in high school.

Togger
Reply to  Amos
4 years ago

As in St X with the elite swimming teams? Unusual for family of elite swimmers, nearly worked for them though.

climate change is real
Reply to  Amos
4 years ago

impressive. how the heck did he manage that given all of the absences? surprised swimswam didnt cover it too

Mike
Reply to  Johnny
4 years ago

There is nothing easy about qualifying or competing at this level of athletic performance. The swimmers have to work hard for years to get to the meet. The parents have to work with their kids, coaches, teachers, school administrators and employers to make it work. Those in LSC’s that help pay are fortunate but advance budgeting is needed for most. There are a great diversity of teams that do not go at all, go to just one or do both and end up with successful swimmers/teams. Find the team that has the strategy you need or plan early to follow the strategy of your team.

climate change is real
4 years ago

excited for fosters 500!

USAUSAUSA
Reply to  climate change is real
4 years ago

Ts and Ps to the poor souls in his heat.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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