The Heat is on!

According to the Capital Weather Gang, the temperatures (and humidity) in the area are jumping right into the oppressive range for the weekend.

Friday’s digit – 4/10: Bearing in mind it may be the most “comfortable” heat of the next week, let’s leave room to subtract as heat and humidity turn oppressive by Sunday/Monday. Camden, CWG

— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) June 29, 2018

The swimmers in the MCSL are also looking to ratchet up the heat as this is the last weekend (3rd meet of the season) to crack the top 8 for the annual Coaches Invitational Longcourse meet. This year, the meet will be held at the Rockville Swim and Fitness Center on Tuesday, July 10^th. This is usually a fun and in recent times really fast meet, as it is a USA Swimming sanctioned event and times can be used to qualify for other championship meets in PVS/USA Swimming. One stipulation to this meet is thatswimmers that qualify can swim no more than two events, allowing additional participants in age groups where there are swimmers that qualify in several events. The other fun aspect is event distances are doubled as they are swum in a 50 meter pool versus the normal 25 meter pool for weekly competition, so those who are new to the sport get a feel for the Olympic sized distances.

We looked through the current results and picked out some of the events to watch:

Boys 8 & Under 25 Free: 5 swimmers within .32 of 8th place, 17.56. Last year, 17.78 qualified 8th.

Girls 8 & Under 25 Free: 6 swimmers within .38 of 8th place, 18.17. Last year, 17.89 qualified 8th.

Boys 9-10 50 Free, .05 separates 8th-11th place- 8th is currently 33.89. Last year, 33.08 qualified 8th.

Girls 13-14 50 Free, .30 separates 8th to 14th!  8th is currently 28.51. Last year, 28.76 qualified 8th.

Boys 11-12 50 Free, .23 separates 8th to 13th. 8th is currently 29.43. Last year, 29.47 qualified 8th.

Girls 11-12 50 Free, .42 separarates 8th to 12th. Last year 29.71 qualified 8th.

Girls 13-14 100 IM, .48 separates 8th to 13th. Last year 1:11.72 qualified 8th.

Girls 8 & under back, .24 separates 8th to 12th. Last year, 22.06 qualified 8th.

Boys 11-12 50 back, .37 separates 8th to 12th. Last year, 34.60 qualified 8th.

Boys 13-14 50 back, .37 separates 8th and 12th. Last year, 30.91 qualified 8th.

Boys 15-18 100 IM, .35 separates 8th to 11th. Last year 1:02.21 qualified 8th.

Girls 15-18 100 IM .26 separates 8th to 13th. Last year 1:11.03 qualified 8th.

Boys 11-12 50 breaststroke, .47 separates 8th and 12th, with the Elkassem brothers sitting 8th and 9th, .03 apart. Last year 37.60 qualified 8th.

What’s interesting here is that Samir is comfortably in 5th place in the 50 Free and 8th in the IM, while his brother Nasim is 4th in back, 6th in IM, and 4th in Fly. With the event limit at 2, and depending how fast others swim, the breaststroke event will likely open up to the 10th & 11th place swimmers as the Elkassem brothers are higher seeds in 2 other events.

Boys 15-18 100 breaststroke, .53 separates 8th and 12th. Last year, 1:09.02 qualified 8th.

Boys 8 & under 25 butterfly, .09 separates 8th and 12th. Last year, 20.40 qualified 8th. Jackson Tavornik is the top seed in 3 events, free, back and fly ( by large margins in each). Depending on what he decides to swim, there could be room for the swimmers in places 9-12 to move up.

Boys 9-10 butterfly, .23 separates 8th and 12th. Last year, 16.45 qualified 8th. Again with swimmers qualifying for multiple events, there could be a good chance for those in 9-12 place to move forward.

Girls 9-10 25 butterfly, .20 separates 8th to 14th! Last year, 16.57 qualified 8th. Hailey Hammond has the top seed in 3 events, so she could opt out of butterfly however, it is still very tight for any more than one of the ‘outside’ swimmers to break in.

Girls 11-12 50 butterfly, .44 separates 8th to 12th. Last year, 32.87 qualified 8th. Jessie Feng, Amy Qin, Sarah Eliason and Ainsley Taylor currently qualify faster in two other events, so this one is wide open for the 9-12 placed swimmers.

Boys 13-14 50 butterfly, .43 separates 8th to 12th. Last year, 29.44 qualified 8th. The top 5 swimmers have qualifying times/ places in several events. Depending on their choices, up to 5 swimmers currently on the ‘outside’ could make it in.

Girls 13-14 butterfly, .41 separates 8th to 12th. Last year, 31.36 qualified 8th. It’s up to Carly Sebring and Erin Gemmell to see how many openings there will be in this event.

Boys 15-18 butterfly, currently a tie for 7th, with 9-14th within .15! Last year, 26.93 qualified 8th. John Clado could opt out allowing some movement here.

Girls 15-18 butterfly, .27 separates 8th to 14th. Last year, 30.59 qualified 8th. With Phoebe Bacon holding the top spot, it depends on what (or if) she decides to swim should spots will open up.

Remember to hydrate, find some shade and swim fast!!