USA Swimming has announced the dates, locations, and time standards for the 2016 Futures Championships to be held August 4-7, 2016. After the success of last year’s inaugural Futures Championships spread among three locations nationally, USA Swimming has added a fourth site for 2016. Next summer’s meets will take place in:
- College Park, MD – University of Maryland
- Atlanta, GA. – Georgia Tech
- Austin, TX- University of Texas (Austin)
- Stanford, CA- Stanford University
The Futures meets bridge the gap between Sectionals and Junior Nationals, with entry standards roughly equivalent to Summer Juniors bonus times. As the standards for Juniors continue to become increasingly faster, teams with only a couple of Juniors-level swimmers now have another option to compete in a team-scored championship meet. Additionally, swimmers who are over 18 and no longer eligible for Juniors but don’t have U.S. Open qualifying times, can compete at Futures.
The qualifying period for the Futures Championships is from July 1, 2015 to the entry deadline (July 26, 2016). U.S. Open qualifiers are not eligible for the Futures Championships. If a swimmer has one U.S. Open time at the entry deadline, he or she may not enter the Futures Championships. If the swimmer achieves a U.S. Open standard after having entered the meet, he or she may not swim that event at Futures.
The USA Swimming Futures Championships time standards for 2016 are as follows:
More information about the meets can be found here.
I now understand the relationship between Sectionals, Futures and Junior Nationals. Thanks for that.
Can you tell me how NCSA’s fits in the mix?
Vera – like YMCA Nationals, the NCSA “Junior Nationals” are run by a separate organization, and while USA Swimming has sanctioned them as a meet, they are not a USA Swimming Junior National Championship. It’s confusing, I know, but that’s the jist of it.
18 yr olds are still eligible for Juniors. And these cuts aren’t even close to summer junior b cuts!
They are close to Winter Junior Bonus standards, but still very far off Summer Junior Bonus standards
So the Atlanta Futures meet is basically Senior Sectionals (add Florida, Florida GC, Indiana and Michigan) with faster standards.
The bold lines are Zone boundaries.
Does anyone understand the LSC assignment map? The colours versus the bolded line?