Wave Swimmers Excel at Nationals!
US Open & Winter Junior Nationals Meet Recaps
This month, Wave was represented by two swimmers from Senior Epic in two different national meets. Jaiden Sreenivasan qualified to swim his first US Open and Daniel Xia qualified for the first time for Winter Junior Nationals.
USA Swimming National Meets are built to follow a progressive tier of cuts. The goal of having different tiers of National Meets is to help swimmers stay motivated to move up to the next level while still offering a very competitive environment for young swimmers. The national meets are divided in the following meets:
- Futures Championships: This is the first tier of the National Meets with pretty fast qualifying times (way faster than Sectionals) and it is held in five locations across the country. Swimmers of any age can swim in this meet, but there is a specific rule for swimmers older than 19 who qualify for finals.
- Winter Junior Nationals (SCY): This is the second tier with faster qualifying times than Futures and it is held in only two locations (West and East). Only swimmers 18&U can swim this meet. This is the meet Daniel competed in last week!
- Summer Junior Nationals (LCM): similar format to Winter Juniors but in the long course pool and the cuts are the fastest cuts for the Junior level.
Besides these three tiers of national meets, there are also Open Meets where the cuts are the fastest cuts in the country and where Olympians and college swimmers show up to compete. A few examples of these meets are the US Open, TYR Pro Series, Summer Nationals (LCM) and Olympic Trials (LCM every four years). Jaiden qualified to swim at the US Open this year!
All these meets are a great opportunity to race with some of the fastest swimmers in the country, learn some important lessons about swimming in high level meets, and gain more experience for the upcoming meets. Now, let's dive into their swims!
US Open, Greensboro, NC - December 4-7
Jaiden qualified in four events, went three personal best times and broke two team open records in Greensboro!
200 IM: 1:50.05 – Team Open Record
Jaiden had a great start and dominated his first day! He dropped 4 seconds to swim a best time in the 200 IM and qualify for his first final at the US Open! In the evening, he was feeling even more confident and shaved off another 0.30, almost breaking the 1:50 barrier. He was able to swim an excellent race focused on the middle hundred in both prelims and finals, finishing the day in 20th.
400 IM: 3:55:89 - Team Open Record
This is Jaiden’s favorite event and he felt a bit of pressure to swim in the morning. He had a good prelims swim, dropped 0.60 off his time and qualified for finals. After reflecting on the things he could do better in the evening—and also feeling more relaxed to have fun at finals—he went back and executed the strategy he had been training for the entire season. With spectacular backstroke and breaststroke legs, he smashed his old time by 5 seconds breaking his own team record and finishing the race in 18th.
200 Free: 1:42.83
That was his second swim on day two and it was only 20 minutes after the 400 IM. He had a rough start and felt better in the second half of the race, but it was too late to go a faster time. It was still a strong swim where he could work on being competitive and racing his heat.
200 Breaststroke: 2:04.51 – Personal Best Time
That was his last event and it was a fantastic swim. He has been working a lot on his breaststroke and it showed in the IM events and in the 200 Breast. He was feeling strong, went out fast and was able to hold his speed to drop 3.74 seconds from his previous time.
Winter Junior Nationals – Austin, TX – December 11-14
This was Daniel’s first-time swimming at Winter Juniors and he was very excited to compete with the fastest swimmers in the country for his age group. He qualified to race two events and did one time trial to complete his meet lineup, going best times in all three events and set a new team record.
100 Breaststroke: 58:32 - Personal Best Time
That was his first event at a big national meet and he did an excellent job managing his nerves and swimming a best time by 0.5. He went out fast and came back strong!
100 Free (Time Trial): 47.80 - Personal Best Time
We made a plan for Daniel to time trail the 100 Free a month before the meet and he was ready to swim fast! He had an excellent race strategy and dominated his race, dropping 0.89 from his previous time.
200 Breaststroke: 2:04.52 – Boys 15-16 Record
This is Daniel’s favorite event and he was feeling confident to swim it. He executed a great race strategy, went out fast (a bit too fast!) and felt the end of the race. Still, he was able to drop a solid 2.08 seconds and earn his first AAAA Time in the new age group! He could also see the areas he needs to improve to be even more competitive at this level.
Congrats Jaiden and Daniel for your outstanding swims at your national meets! Your results reflect your dedication, discipline, and commitment to your sport during the season!!
