2018 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, July 25 – Sunday, July 29, 2018
- William Woollett Aquatics Center, Irvine, CA
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
- Meet website
- Meet information
- Event Order
- Full selection procedures
Simplified Selection Criteria – 100/200 frees
- Top 4 to 2018 Pan Pacific Championships
- Top 2-6 juniors to 2018 Junior Pan Pacs
- Top 4-6 (from Nationals + Pan Pacs) to 2019 World Championships
- 4-6 more to 2019 World University Games
- 2+ more to 2019 Pan American Games
Simplified Selection Criteria – Most Olympic Events
- Top 1-4 to 2018 Pan Pacific Championships
- Top 2-6 juniors to 2018 Junior Pan Pacs
- Top 1-2 (from Nationals + Pan Pacs) to 2019 World Championships
- 1-2 more to 2019 World University Games
- 1-2 more to 2019 Pan American Games
Simplified Selection Criteria – Non-Olympic Events
- Top 1 to 2019 World Championships
As we count down the remaining month before the U.S. National Championships and the selection of national travel teams for the next two years, we’ll be compiling links and picks from all of our event-by-event previews on this page.
Bookmark this page to stay on top of every race we preview and for a quick look at our top picks in each race.
National Team Tracker
Interested in what our projected finish orders would mean for the five major international travel teams being selected this summer? We’ve got you covered, with this updating spreadsheet of national team rosters and selection priorities for all five meets.
Here’s how to read it: The colors refer to selection priorities, helping us re-order the sheet as we go to see which athletes will be selected first. We’ll use our projected finish orders to show who should make which team. Be patient, as this is a complex process that may require some time after previews go live to update our projected roster.
Selection criteria:
- Blue: Priority #1
- Red: Priority #2
- Green: Priority #3
- Yellow: Priority #4
We’ll update these as soon as we can after each new preview is posted. Remember that 2019 Worlds selections also include the results of 2018 Pan Pacs, which is why we’ll keep those roster spots in bold – they are tentative until Pan Pacs has wrapped, and all 2019 projected rosters are assuming that finish orders stay exactly as our Nationals finish predictions at Pan Pacs. Since our top 8 picks don’t often feature a lot of juniors, the Junior Pan Pacs roster projections will be pretty thin. We’ll be doing some extra coverage on the top Junior Pan Pac contenders next month.
Update: We’ve published a compilation of the top times by Junior Pan Pacs eligible swimmers over the Nationals qualifying period in every event. We’ll continue to add any junior athletes picked inside our top 8 to the Junior Pan Pacs roster below, but we’ll fill out the remainder with swimmers from those rankings to give an even better idea of Junior Pan Pacs roster spot predictions.
NATIONAL CHAMPION PREDICTIONS:
50 Free/100 Free/100 Fly: Caeleb Dressel
200 Free: Townley Haas
400 Free/1500 Free: Zane Growthe
200 Fly/200 IM/400 IM: Chase Kalisz
100 Back: Ryan Murphy
200 Back: Ryan Murphy
100 Breast: Kevin Cordes
200 Breast: Josh Prenot
WORLD CHAMPION PREDICTIONS:
50 Free: Caeleb Dressel (WR)?
100 Free: Caeleb Dressel (WR)?
200 Free: Sun Yang
400 Free: Sun Yang (WR)?
1500 Free: Sun Yang (WR)?
100 Back: Ryan Murphy (WR)?
200 Back: Ryan Murphy
100 Breast: Adam Peaty (WR)?
200 Breast: Ippei Watanabe (WR)?
100 Fly: Caeleb Dressel (WR)?
200 Fly: Kristof Milak (WR)?
200 IM: Kosuke Hagino
400 IM: Kosuke Hagino
There is no World Championships this year. If you are predicting for next year, I don’t think Hagino will beat Kalisz in both IMs. And Sun won’t win the mile.
I don’t see watanabe winning 2 breast either he’s too much of a wild card
First day as a swim fan?
Lol
Yep and every dog has its day ……
Sun Yang WR in the 1500?
These predictions aren’t that bad they don’t need to be hated on !
Why are Caleb and MA in red in the 50 free on the last day?
They are the top two finishers in our first event preview, which you can see by clicking on the event
50 Free: Caeleb Dressel
100 Free: Caeleb Dressel
200 Free: Townley Haas/Blake Pieroni
400 Free: Zane Grothe
1500 Free: Zane Grothe
100 Fly: Caeleb Dressel
200 Fly: Jack Conger
100 Back: Ryan Murphy
200 Back: Ryan Murphy
100 Breast: Kevin Cordes/Michael Andrew
200 Breast: Josh Prenot
200 IM: Chase Kalisz
400 IM: Chase Kalisz
(Couldn’t decide on 1breast or 2free)
You have Andrew over Cody Miller or Andrew Wilson? Yeah ok
Both of their best times are pretty much a full second faster than MA’s. Doesn’t make any sense.
How many kicks will they be allowed this year? Asking for a friend.
Caeleb will have more than 3 individuals, meaning he will have more than 3 first places 😉