2016 FUTURES CHAMPIONSHIPS – ATLANTA
- August 4th-7th, 2016
- Atlanta, Georgia (Georgia Tech)
- Psych sheets
- Live Results
With just distance events and the 800 free relays on Thursday, day 2 of the Atlanta Futures Championships saw the meet get into full swing with five different events on Friday morning. On the docket was the 200 free, 100 breast, 100 fly, 400 IM and 400 free relay.
Michael Taylor of the Dynamo Swim Club had a very strong showing this morning, taking the top seed in both the 200 free and 100 fly. In the 200 free he put up a best time of 1:52.92 to lead the field and did so again in the 100 fly, posting a 54.73 for another best time and the top seed. Taylor is coming off a dynamite Olympic Trials where he finished 5th in the 100 back and 7th in the 200 back.
Other top seeds on the men’s side heading into tonight were grabbed by Colson Zucker in the 100 breast and Connor Blandford in the 400 IM. Zucker put up a 1:04.99, improving his seed time by seven tenths. With the rest of the field all clocking 1:05 this morning, Zucker will have to be right on form again tonight to take the win. Blandford and Marlins of Raleigh teammate Gregory Lombana lead the 400 IM after being the only two under 4:30 this morning. Of concern is 5th seed William Schultz, who is came in with a seed time of 4:28.54 but was 4:31.77 this morning.
Maybe the surprise of the morning on the women’s side was 15 year-old Olwyn Bartis of SWIM-MAC throwing down the top time of 2:03.75 in the women’s 200 free prelims, taking four seconds off her entry time. She will be chased down by Brooke Rubendall, Ana Pozder and Emma Layton tonight, all of whom were right around their best times this morning clocking 2:04s.
The women’s 100 breast and 100 fly will both be tight races, with the top three in each all going right around the same time: 1:12 in the 100 breast and 1:01 in the 100 fly. Danielle Dellatorre (1:12.33) and Talia Bates (1:01.04) lead the way heading into tonight.
The women’s 400 IM saw four girls crack five minutes this morning, with Alina Faunce leading the way in 4:56.65. The top two seeds from the psych sheets – Evie Bragg and Uma Knaven, will both be out of the picture tonight. Bragg, entered with the fastest time of 4:55.55, was disqualified, while Knaven added over nine seconds to end up 20th.
The men’s and women’s 400 free relays, each with four heats, had two heats swim this morning and then the fastest two heats will swim with finals tonight. Thus far the Southwest Stars ‘B’ women and Southern Crescent Aquatic men lead the way.
Find it interesting that so many young talented swimmers are choosing to stay close to “home” and swim Futures versus attending Junior Nationals. Perhaps its Oly Trial year fallout, but seeing some really fast swims in pools where a lot of these kids are comfortable at the pool location/being close to home. Kudo’s for whoever came up with this idea.