PVS Swimmers earning accolades

By: Reach for the Wall Staff

SwimSwam publishes a weekly series called MP Weekly Wonders. As described on their website: “The Weekly Wonders column is a celebration of age-group swimming, where new champions are made every day. Anyone can look up the top swims of the week. That’s not what we’re doing here. If we were only reporting on the week’s top swims we would feature the same handful of athletes every Wednesday. Instead, this is an opportunity to introduce the swimming community to athletes who have made great strides in the context of their own particular swimming worlds. By association, it also celebrates their coaches and their teams. The Weekly Wonders column, therefore, amounts to a pat on the back for a job well done, and hopefully encourages swimmers of all levels to continue to reach from within to get to that next level.”

Here’s some of the recent acknowledgements from PVS swimmers:

6/27/2018:

Brynn Curtis, 16, York Swim Club (YORK-PV): 200m breast (2:36.67) – Curtis picked up her first U.S. Open qualification in the 200m breast while competing at the SNOW Long Course Invitational hosted by SNOW Swimming. She dropped 3.8 seconds off her seed time and was 4.5 seconds faster than she’d been at this point in the season last year. Curtis wrapped up the weekend with new PBs in the 100/200 free and 100/200 breast.

5/9/2018:

Eleanor Sun, 13, Nation’s Capital Swim Club: 200m IM (2:27.17) – Swimming at the Poseidon Classic, Sun took 3.8 seconds off her seed time to finish second in the girls’ 13-14 200 IM, going 7.4 seconds faster than what she went at this time last year. She won the 100 breast and 200 breast, and placed 3rd in the 100 back, 6th in the 200 back and 7th in the 200 fly. At the end of the meet, Sun had new PBs in the 100 back, 100 breast, 200 breast, 200 fly, and 200 IM.

12/13/2017:

Torri Huske, 15, Arlington Aquatic Club: 100y fly (53.34) – Huske took another 3/10 off a one-week-old PB to win the girls’ 100 fly at the Sport Fair Winter Classic sponsored by Potomac Marlins Swim Team. Now 3 seconds faster than she was a year ago at this time, Huske broke the meet record with her winning time. She also won the 50 free (meet record), 200 free, 500 free, 200 fly, and 200 IM, and was runner-up in the 200 breast. She finished the weekend with PBs in all 7 events.

10/18/2017:

Mackenzie McConagha, 14, Nation’s Capital Swim Club: 200y back (2:02.64) – Swimming at the JP Popovich Memorial Invitational, McConagha won the girls’ 13-14 100 free, 100/200 back, and 100/200 fly. She went a best time in the 200 back by 1.3 second and was 4.3 seconds faster than she’d been at this time last year. Two weeks ago she earned new PBs in the 50 free, 200 breast, and 200 IM.

Catherine Belyakov, 15, Rockville Montgomery Swim Club: 200y IM (2:03.47) – Belyakov picked up her first Winter Juniors cut in the 200 IM at the RMSC NTG Showdown. She won the event in a time that was .4 seconds faster than her previous PB, and 5.5 seconds ahead of last October’s pace. Belyakov also won the 100/200 breast and 100/200 fly, and finished the weekend with new times in the 100/200 fly and 200 IM.

The following swimmers have achieved roster spots on USA swimming National Teams or have been invited to National Select camps with the purpose of developing toward making National Teams in the future.

USA Swimming 2018 Pan Pacific Championships Roster

• Katie Ledecky  Stanford/Nation’s Capital Swim Club
• Chase Travis  Nation’s Capital Swim Club
• Jack Conger Texas/Nation’s Capital Swim Club
• Andrew Seliskar California Aquatics/ Nation’s Capital Swim Club

USA Swimming 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Championships

• Phoebe Bacon Nation’s Capital Swim Club

2017-2018 Women’s National Junior Team Roster

• Megan Byrnes Stanford Swimming/NCAP
• Madelyn Donohoe  The Fish
• Chase Travis  Nation’s Capital Swim Club
• Phoebe Bacon  Nation’s Capital Swim Club

USA Swimming Zone Select Camp

USA Swimming sponsors four Zone Select Camps in an effort to identify the emerging young athletes in each Zone and offer them a unique motivational and educational experience. The Zone Select Camps are viewed as an integral step for athletes to move from the local and Zone level onto to the national scene.

Several swimmers from PVS qualified for the 2018 camp which was held at the University of Virginia June 7-10

• Jill Berger- Sea Devils
• Sophie Duncan- Sea Devils
• Erin Gemmell- NCAP
• Carly Sebring-NCAP
• Joyce Wu- RMSC
• Andrew Blusiewicz- NCAP
• Liam Redman-FISH

Eligibility Criteria:

28 male and 28 female athletes are selected in each of the four Zones.
Selected girls must be age 12-13 at the time of performance.
Selected boys must be age 13-14 at the time of performance.

14 athletes of each gender are selected based on 2018 Long Course Meters (LCM) IMX point scores according to the following:
Seven girls age 12 and seven boys age 13
Seven girls age 13 and seven boys age 14

Then, the fastest swimmer in each Zone in each Long Course Meters (LCM) Olympic event (including the 800 and 1500 for both genders) is invited for a total of 14 additional male and 14 additional female athletes. If a swimmer was already selected based on IMX score, the next fastest swimmer is selected in that event.

National Diversity Select Camp

This camp was created to provide advanced performance services to under-represented populations of USA Swimming. Athletes are between the ages of 14-16 and participate in a camp at the Olympic Training Center that delves into topics such as technique, training, strength and conditioning, goal setting and leadership skills. Coaches for this camp are also chosen from under-represented populations in our sport.

Eligibility

• Athletes must represent an ethnically underrepresented population that is less than 10% of the current USA Swimming membership. These populations include: African American, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Native American.
• Age: Athletes must be 14-16 years of age as of May 3, 2018.
• Athletes must be a US citizen and a member of USA Swimming.
• Any athlete member who is eligible to represent the USA in international competition: a U.S. citizen who has NOT represented another country in international competition, in the case of dual citizens (your sport nation must be the United States).
• The athlete must have at least one Diversity Select Camp time standard (standards found on the USA Swimming website on the Member Resources/Swim Camps tab).

PVS swimmers that qualified and attended this camp held in Colorado Springs, CO May 3-6, 2018

• Janika Perezous-SNOW
• Tia Thomas- RMSC
• Kyle Lawson-NCAP
• Noah Rutberg-NCAP
• Sean Santos-RMSC
• Thomas Soh-MOON

2018 National Select Camps

U.S. Olympic Training Center, CO

October 11-14, 2018(girl’s camp),  October 25-28, 2018 (boy’s camp)

Selection Criteria

• 48 male and 48 female athletes are selected for each NSC. Camps are split between genders.
• The first 42 male/female athletes shall be selected following the Junior National Long Course Championships based on the SWIMS database. The fastest three eligible athletes in each event will be invited.
• In addition, the 6 highest scoring age 14-15 female athletes and the 6 highest scoring age 15-16 male athletes will be invited based on their LCM IMX point scores.

2017 Attendees (2018 invitees will occur after August 31)

• Sean Conway-NCAP
• Darren Durocher-NCAP
• Philip Manoff-NCAP
• Katelyn Mack-NCAP
• Anna Keating-Machine
• Lexi Cuomo- Mason Makos
• Abigail Harter-NCAP

2018 Open Water Camps August 22-23

We haven’t been able to locate the roster, but here’s the description and link to the criteria:

The 2018 National Open Water Camp will be held August 23-26 in Pleasant Prairie, WI. USA Swimming seeks to identify the best distance swimmers, offering them a unique motivational and educational experience. The National Open Water Camp is viewed as an integral step for athletes to move from the pool to Open Water, then to the international scene.

More Info