USA Swimming has announced the 56 swimmers that will be in attendance at the 2023 Eastern Zone Select Camp. The camp, which runs Thursday-Sunday, is set to kick off May 18th at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Leading the way with the number of participants is NOVA of Virginia, Bluefish Swim Club, and Long Island Aquatic Club, each with four athletes slated to attend. The next most is Scarlet Aquatics and North Baltimore Aquatic Club, who come in with three athletes each.
Headlining the roster is Audrey Derivaux of the Jersey Wahoos. Derivaux is the 11-12 girls’ National Age Group (NAG) record holder in the 100m fly, which she swam this past August at summer Junior Nationals. She carried her momentum through to this short course season, and this spring swam the fastest 200 backstroke done by a 13-year-old girl.
The roster also features a handful of 2023 NCSA Age Group champions, including Aidin Muminovic, Maddie Bynum, Elizabeth Bryan, and Ryan Baldwin.
- See full roster here.
The Eastern Zone Select Camp is one of four Zone Select Camps held each year. In each zone, 28 girls and 28 boys are chosen to attend, with the girls being ages 12-13 at the time of their performance and boys being 13-14 years old. Athletes are selected by the following criteria:
- The top seven IMX scoring athletes in each age and gender (28 total)
- The next fastest available swimmer in each Olympic event per gender (28 total)
To be selected, athletes must also be U.S. citizens who have not already been to the National Select Camps or been named to the National or Junior National Teams. The camps work as a progression, meaning that once an athlete has attended a higher level camp, they cannot “step down.”
The camps consist of both in-water practices and classroom sessions that cover various information designed to motivate and empower athletes as they continue their swimming careers.