By Sharon Robb
CARY, N.C., July 26, 2022—South Florida Aquatic Club swimmers will be among a talented field when the USA Swimming Futures Championship begins Wednesday at Triangle Aquatic Center.
The Futures Championship is designed as an intermediate step between Sectional Championships and Junior Nationals or National Championships, and open to swimmers of all ages who have time standards.
SOFLO’s talented contingent includes Javier Colmenares, 16; Elena Dinehart, 17; Olivia Dinehart, 17; Natalie Gembicki, 17; Alex Golding, 18; Sophia Grubbs, 17; Austin Nelson, 16; Wisthon Rendon, 18; Ricardo Roche, 22; Rafael Rodriguez, 20; Mallory Schleicher, 18; Maddie Smutny, 17; and Izzy Wilson, 15.
SOFLO swimmers (seven girls and six boys) will compete in 48 individual events and one relay.
Other notable swimmers competing are: Julia Podkoscielny of Pine Crest Swimming; Kaii Winkler of Eagle Aquatics; Heidi Smithwick, Jupiter Dragons; Addison Sauickie and Gracie Weyant of Sarasota Sharks; Jillian Crooks of TS Aquatics; Hannah Bellard of Club Wolverine; Davidson Vincent of Azura; and Lismar Lyon of Midtown Weston
Podkoscielny, 17, seeded first in the 400 IM (4:43.57) and 200 backstroke (2:12.42) is prepping for Junior Pan Pacs.
The seventh edition of Futures is one of five around the nation. In previous years, there were four hosting sites for four designated regions. The Board of Directors added another site and adjusted the boundary map to accommodate the fifth region.
Swimmers from the following LSCs are eligible to compete including Florida Gold Coast, Florida Swimming, Southeastern, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Indiana.
The other Futures sites are Geneva, Ohio; Minneapolis; College Station, Tex. and Santa Clara, Calif. The meets are capped at 800 swimmers.
Wednesday events are men’s and women’s 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter butterfly, 800-meter freestyle and 1500-meter freestyle. The 800, 1500 and all relays are timed final events. Prelims are 9 a.m. and finals at 5:30 p.m.
ELSEWHERE
Stanford-bound Josh Zuchowski of FAST is competing in this week’s U.S. Summer Nationals in Irvine, Calif. The meet, which began Tuesday, is a lead-up to the Junior Pac Pacific Championships in Hawaii in August for him. He is entered in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, 100 butterfly and 200 IM. He is coming off last week’s FGC Senior Championships. In Tuesday morning’s prelims, Erika Pelaez, 16, of Eagle Aquatics turned in a 54.65 lifetime best in the 100-meter freestyle prelims of U.S. Nationals to move from No. 38 to seventh in the 15-16 year-old rankings.
Sharon Robb can be reached at sha11cats@aol.com
http://www.swim4soflo.com
Share this:
South Florida Aquatic Club's Blog 