Sandwiched between the busy high school championship season and destination meets like NCSA Junior Nationals and USA Swimming’s sectionals, Potomac Valley Swimming’s senior championships (March 4-8) are among the most overlooked elite-racing meets on the schedule. As the last tune-up before March’s spotlight championships, swimmers are raring to squeeze into a speed suit and go fast, with many area’s top-tier swimmers going for season-bests in “off” events at George Mason’s Patriot Aquatic Center. And with junior nationals running finals in the long-course format this year, this is a last chance for high school juniors to show off for college coaches in yards before summer’s open recruitment season roars into full gear.
While the snow that is presently blanketing the region has already canceled Thursday’s distance session — much to the dismay of the dozens of parent volunteers that would have been stood riveted during seven combined heats of women’s 1,650-yard and men’s 1,000-yard freestyle, let’s take a moment to look ahead at some of the weekend’s best races. That is, before those sessions too are postponed.
• Official psych sheet
• Estimated timeline
Update: PVS has announced an updated schedule for junior and senior champs as follows:
Distance events originally scheduled for Thursday (junior and senior champs)
Warm-up: 10:30-11:20 a.m.; events start: 11:30 a.m.
Friday events will be swum as timed finals
Warm-up: 2:30-3:50 p.m.; events start: 4:00 p.m.
1. Andrew Seliskar in the men’s 500 freestyle
Nation’s Capital’s Andrew Seliskar hasn’t swum the mid-distance freestyle race since last year’s senior championship meet, where the then-17-year-old posted his second fastest time of 4 minutes 21.04 seconds. The time trailed his lifetime best of 4:18.97, posted at the 2013 iteration of this meet.
If February’s high school championships were any indication of springtime success, Seliskar could be in for another sizable drop in this event in which he bounded from a 4:28 in March 2012 to a 4:18 the subsequent year. A ten-second improvement is probably out of the question this weekend, unless he plans to challenge Peter Vanderkaay’s American record (4:08.54), but the California-bound senior could easily take down the 17-18 PVS open record held by NOVA of Virginia’s Townley Haas (4:19.21) and maybe challenge Tom Dolan’s historic resident record of 4:12.30, which stood as the American record in 1994.
More likely than not, Seliskar will be aiming for something in the 4:15-16 range that would move him into the top spot among area performers in 2014-15, ahead of 16-year-old Matthew Hirschberger’s 4:17.13 from last month’s Washington Metro. Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships prelims.
Other target events could be the 200 butterfly, in which he is a top-10 all-time U.S. performer with his 17-18 national age group record set at Tom Dolan in December; the 200 individual medley, where he may challenge the NAG record of 1:41.21 held by David Nolan; and both breaststroke distances.
Seliskar will also have a great duel in the 100 butterfly with former University of Michigan swimmer Sean Fletcher (Mason Makos), with the pair seeded 1-2. Fletcher enters as the top seed with a 45.54. Seliskar is the top seed in six of his seven events, including the 400 IM.
2. The next wave is already here
A quick glance at the senior championships psych sheet reveals what has been an on-going trend in the Potomac Valley of late: junior-aged swimmers already too fast to compete against their own age group.
Just take a gander at the women’s (a markedly loose term in this case) 400 individual medley. The top seed is yesteryear’s too-fast-to-be-that-young swimmer, Megan Byrnes, 16, with a 4:15.74, followed by Kylie Jordan, 17 (4:22.12).
Then come four swimmers aged 14, 14, 13 and 13.
Led by a pair of young high school freshmen, Danika Katzer (4:22.20) and Sinead Eksteen (4:23.75), and followed by 13-year-olds Katie Mack (4:26.50) and Claire Nguyen (4:27.98), their entry times already rank them among the nation’s best this season. The younger duo currently rank as the fourth and eighth fastest 13-year-olds nationally. Katzer breaks into the top 10 among 14-year-olds, while Eksteen’s time is based on a previous season but would rank among the top 15.
All six girls train with Nation’s Capital Swim Club.
With a sub-4:21 swim this weekend, they could also crack USA Swimming’s all-time top-100 list this weekend, joining the likes of Cassidy Bayer (20th: 4:15.65), Isabella Rongione (27th: 4:16.56), Emily Meilus (65th: 4:19.59) and Lea Gwennap (69th: 4:19.81), who are sophomores and freshman currently.
Mack is also seeded second in the women’s 50 freestyle (23.65), fourth in the 200 backstroke (1:59.03), fifth in the 100 freestyle (51.45) and seventh in the 100 backstroke (56.58). She currently ranks in the top five nationally in seven events.
3. Sean Fletcher vs. James Jones in the sprint freestyle events
It’s not really fair to compare a post-collegiate swimmer and a high school junior, that is unless that 17-year-old is and has been posting NCAA-ready times.
Sean Fletcher, 23, is the top seed in the 50 freestyle (19.60) and 100 freestyle (43.71), followed by James Jones, 17, with times of 19.95 and 43.97. Jones was close to breaking the 20-second barrier at Virginia’s 6A state championship a few weeks ago, and looked strong in posting a sub-45 in the longer sprint event as well. That was without any real competition for the junior national team member, who has consistently lowered his times from year to year, usually with huge showings in March.
Jones’s best in the 100 freestyle entering last year’s junior nationals was 44.80, which he then cleaved nearly a second off in Orlando. And if he can break 44-seconds at seniors like he did last year at NCSAs, a low 43 or high 42 doesn’t seem out of the question in a couple weeks. Likewise, Jones was a 20.48 entering 2014, before he crushed that time with his first sub-20 split at junior nationals (19.99). He lowered that time again in December at Tom Dolan.
His competition is an accomplished sprinter, including as a former national high school record holder in the 100 butterfly. Fletcher’s lifetime best in the 50 freestyle comes from last year’s seniors, while his best in the 100 freestyle sits at 43.11 from the 2013 Big Ten Championships.
While neither swimmer will be fully rested this weekend, the sure level of head-to-head racing could push their times southward.
Also in the mix in both events will be John Shebat, who ran down Jones in the 200 freestyle relay at states, splitting 19.47. His best flat-start time in the 50 is a 20.09, a runner-up finish to Jones at Tom Dolan. Expect a bigger drop in the 100 freestyle, where Shebat enters as the fifth seed with a 45.95. With a sub-47 in the 100 backstroke, Shebat’s time is more likely in the low 44s or high 43s.
4. Speaking of post-grad swimmers…
Along with Fletcher, post-grad swimmers Amanda Kendall and Rachel Burnett (West Virginia) will also be appearing this weekend in Fairfax. Kendall, a former LSU and Arizona swimmer, is the top seed in four events, while Burnett is seeded in the top five in five individual events, including as the No. 1 overall in 200 individual medley.
Kendall, who is listed as a Mason Makos swimmer like Fletcher, was training with T2 Aquatics in Florida as recently as December, but it is unclear where she calls home base these days. She is the top seed in the 50 freestyle (22.58), 100 freestyle (48.38), 200 freestyle (1:46.15) and 100 butterfly (52.76). She’s gone faster in all of the above.
Burnett, a former Potomac Marlin now swimming with Machine Aquatics, is seeded second to Kendall in the 200 freestyle (1:47.42) and second in the 500 freestyle to Megan Byrnes, 4:43.92 to 4:49.61.
5. A stellar non-backstrokers field in the girls’ 100 backstroke
With the departure of Janet Hu last year to Stanford, the relative weakness of the 100 backstroke in the Potomac Valley was made glaringly obvious. While most of USA Swimming’s top-10 lists are dotted with local swimmers, the girls’ sprint backstroke event remains barren. The sole representatives from the high school ranks are Machine’s Lea Gwennap and Nation’s Capital’s Cassidy Bayer, who rank fourth (54.33) and 10th (54.78) respectively among 15-year-old girls this season.
While Gwennap could be considered a backstroke specialist, her strength is in her versatility. Bayer, an internationally ranked butterflier, doesn’t even train backstroke in practice after sustaining a freak-shoulder injury last spring while warming down swimming the stroke. She does train IM, however, so is not completely devoid of technique work.
Gwennap isn’t swimming the event Saturday, and Bayer enters as the top seed as a result. In second will be Snow Swimming’s Caroline Lee (55.28), followed by another butterfly/IM specialist Kylie Jordan (55.44) and the Potomac Marlins’ Natalie Obando (56.04). FISH’s Carrie Heilbrun, Machine’s Suzanne Dolan and NCAP’s Katie Mack follow, none of which focus on the backstroke events, other than perhaps Heilbrun.
Either way, it should be an interesting battle for the top spot.
