Futures Championships and Western Age Group Zones

Wave had four swimmers participate at the highest levels in the past week, with three at Futures and one at Western Zones. Congrats to all four swimmers for their stunning week in College Station and Elk Grove. You have worked really hard throughout the season and the results were very exciting!!

Futures Recap

Last week, Wave sent three swimmers to USA Swimming’s Futures Championships in College Station, Texas. Before we get to the many exciting swims over the week, I want to share the significance and achievement for athletes to make this meet.

The Futures Meet is the stepping stone for athletes who have qualified at a Sectional Level, but have not yet reached the Junior National Level of swimming. There are only five Future Meets offered across the country each summer, and teams are assigned a location to attend. This meet has very challenging time standards and when swimmers reach this level, they are nearing the top of the pyramid in the swimming community. This year we were sent to Texas A&M University and had an amazing experience! Our achievements in numbers were:

• 8 Personal Best Times
• 2 Team Records (Boys 15-16 and Boys 17-18)
• 2 Finals
• 1 Futures Cut

Andrea Wu: 50 & 100 Free, 100 Fly. Andrea set up the tone for our week at Futures with a fantastic 1.35-second drop in the 100 Free, almost breaking the 1.00 barrier on our first swim at the meet! That lit up the team! Andrea also went a season best time in the 50 Free and swam only half-second off in the 100 Fly.

Fun fact: Andrea accepted the challenge to do a non-official Time Trial in the 50 Fly during warmups on the last day. The result? 28.85 (stopwatch #1) and 28.95 (stopwatch #2). Andrea’s time would have been a Team Record (Girls 17-18) and maybe an Open Record if that was an official swim. The current official records are: 30.25 (17-18) and 28.99 (0pen).

Fredrik Larsen: 100 & 200 Back, 100 Fly. Fredrik had one main goal in mind for this meet: to qualify for finals in the 200 Back…and so he did!! Moreover, he broke the Team Record (Boys 17-18) twice! First during Prelims, then again in Finals where he finished in third place on the C Final (19^th place overall). The new record is now 2:12.21. Besides that, he went a best time in the 100 Back dropping almost a full second from his previous time and swam right at his time in the 100 Fly.

Fun fact: Freddy got a best time in the 100 Back on the second time he swam it. The first swim he went right at his time. Then we decided to do it again and signed him up for a time trial in the 100 Back. He went out faster and came back stronger to swim the distance in 1:01.06 and achieve a personal best!

Jaiden Sreenivasan: 400 IM, 200 Breast, 800 Free + time trial 200 Fly. Jaiden started his meet qualifying for Finals in the 400 IM on his first swim! At Finals, he went 2 seconds faster, swimming close to his lifetime best achieved two weeks before at Sectionals. After that, all his swims were a personal best time! He had excellent swims in both 200 Breast and 200 Fly (Time Trial) getting close to the Futures cuts in both events. Then to wrap up the meet, Jaiden swam the best 800 Free of his life getting a Futures cut, breaking the Team Record again (Boys 15-16), and finishing in 18^th place. The current record was still fresh from Sectionals and the new time is 8:40.27.

Fun facts: Jaiden qualified for Futures in the 400 IM only two weeks ago at Sectionals. It was also the first time he swam the 200 Breast at the LCM pool.

Western Zones Recap

Claire Gao was Wave’s sole swimmer at this meet, which is the highest level possible for 10&Unders. There are four zones in US Swimming. This year’s Western Age Group Zones was in Elk Grove, California. The swimmers at this level all compete for PNS rather than their individual teams. Claire had a fantastic meet, especially with it starting just four days after PNS Age Group Champs ended! On day 1, she had a best time in the 200 Free less than one week after her previous best time! Then she finaled in the 100 Free on day 2 with a time right on her best. Finally, on day 4, she became just the second 10&Under in Wave history to break the 31:00 barrier in the 50m Free, going 30.86!

Fun fact: Claire swam anchor on 200m Medley and Free Relays. PNS finished 3^rd both times and their time in the 200 Free Relay would have shattered the PNS record!

Well done, Andrea, Claire, Freddie, and Jaiden, and congratulations on wrapping up Wave’s 2021-22 season in style!!